Review - Mark Miller

For immediate release:

Author's new book receives a warm literary welcome.

Readers' Favorite announces the review of the Fiction - Short Story/Novela book "Renaissance" by Mark Miller, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077XFQ3VR.

Readers' Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the "Best Websites for Authors" and "Honoring Excellence" awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.

"Reviewed By Edith Wairimu for Readers' Favorite

We all need rejuvenation at some point in our lives, something that will rekindle the thrill and passion we once had, and awaken us from our stupor, something that will set us on the right course again. Renaissance by Mark Miller is a collection of short stories about various characters living ordinary lives. Their lives at first seem to be just like any others until something happens that initiates the change they have been hoping to achieve. In one of the stories, Richard Thatcher remembers with nostalgia when things were easy; when all he cared about was playing in the mud with his friends who have now moved on with their lives. Looking back, he realizes how much life has changed. Everything seems to be a dazed rush. No stopping even for a breath of air. Pressure continues to mount on him. “Not anymore,” he finally decides, and walks out.

The four stories contained in Renaissance by Mark Miller are all unique in their own way, but still drive the same theme. Each story inspired reawakening within me. It is easy to carry on through life and forget who we are or what we really want. As I read the book, I was reminded of what really matters and what my priorities should be. The Forgotten Well specifically reminded me of the blessing of life’s simplicity and how not to get bogged down by unnecessary complications. The stories contain an honest and inspiring outlook on life and will be a great read for anyone seeking inspiration."

You can learn more about Mark Miller and "Renaissance" at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/renaissance/1 where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.

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Spoiler Alert

I'm going to discuss a sensitive and polarizing topic in this post: The Last Jedi.

If you haven't seen it yet, turn away now because there will be spoilers.

That's the first burning question: will we have an anthology story for Snoke? Who is he? Where did he come from? Does it even matter?

Before I go any further, I will say I loved The Last Jedi. I will also say that this post may be a bit self-serving. I have read and watched so many negative reviews about this movie. I saw an article about a petition to have it removed from canon. If we don't like something, let's whine about it and erase it from history? Does that work in pop culture as well as it does in politics?

The #notmyluke movement is what finally drove me to write this. I realize my opinion is no more or less valid than anyone else's, if you even read this.

Mark Hamill stated in an interview that his Luke Skywalker would never do the things that happened in the latest movie. He would never give up. He added at the end, that this wasn't his movie and a new generation of characters essentially needed to come into their own while he stepped aside. However, our sound-byte world will only latch on to the first part.

But that's what this Star Wars was about: giving up and failure. It was about how we deal with and overcome that failure. My generation grew up with Star Wars. We had idealistic heroes for an idealistic time. Things are not so hopeful these days (or are we blissfully nostalgic?). I, for one, think that many my age have become Last Jedi Luke. We are (or maybe it's just me) closed off from the force. We have forgotten the old ways and lost our hope. Something needs to happen to bring back that connection. This version of Luke realizes that and he comes back, if only to make his final and most important stand.

First they killed Han Solo and now Luke. They are killing our childhood. No. If it lives in our hearts and memories, can it really be killed? Everyone dies. Luke died. Yoda died. I'm going to die some day. That's not depressing. It's life. The death of Luke Skywalker somehow makes Star Wars more real and maybe that's why so many didn't like it? Who likes being confronted with their own mortality?

What else did they not like? Too many jokes? It's a kid's movie. Star Wars was always for kids. Part of the problem is that the kids have grown up.  Maybe it's a little more aimed at kids these days, but it is owned by Disney now. While Marvel may take Disney further and further away from its core values, maybe Star Wars can bring some of those back.

Where were the light sabre battles? This movie was more about the Force than any of the other two movies combined. One of the worst things, in my opinion, that happened to Star Wars was Yoda holding a light sabre. As a Jedi Master for over 800 years, he should have been so far beyond the need for a physical weapon. His few moments in Last Jedi showed some of his true power. Frank Oz and his puppet stole the show for me. And Luke's final moments, expressing himself through the Force, were brilliant. Notice how different he looked from the version of himself on the island? He brought forth the best version of himself, an ideal that he had long since abandoned. I hate how I look in selfies. I wonder what the best version of my self would look like?

Eh, not too bad...

And for those that had a problem with Finn and Rose, are there no romantics left? Rose just lost her sister and she spends her time alone in the underbelly of the ship. Then she is suddenly thrust into an adventure with one of her heroes. Of course she's going to fall for him. We should be happy for something simple and good among all the death and destruction.

I think the last thing I want to comment on is Poe. It is my contention that every story is incomplete without a character arc, a defining change. While Poe's arc was maybe a little obvious, it was solid and necessary. Did he spend a lot of time looking out windows or was he actually looking at a window into his soul? If he had been constantly caught up in the action, he would not have had the time to discover himself.

In summary, The Last Jedi is one of my favorites of the Saga. While I was disappointed that they did not bump into Lando on Canto Bight, I was as equally surprised at how I felt seeing Leia floating in space. The revelation, or lack, of Rey's parents didn't even bother me. They do have to save something for Ep IX. I do apologize if I rambled a bit, I did warn that this would be a little self-serving. I posted some specific thoughts and I would love to hear in the comments if anyone agrees or disagrees with any of my points.

If you would like to see how Star Wars influenced my writing, Journey of the Fourth Queen in only 99 cents on Amazon Kindle - http://mwbooks.me/4Q

Review - Petals by Murray Pura

Murray took a chance.

Murray Pura is known for his Amish and Romance novels. He is a best-seller and has won multiple awards. With Petals, Murray took a chance on a different kind of writing. Petals is a collection of poems that tend to be quite personal and more than a little emotional. Murray took a chance outside of his norm and it paid off in the form of a 5-star review.

Petals by Murray Pura is available from MillerWords in paperback and Kindle - click HERE to purchase.

Here is the complete article by reviewer and poet Jim Bennett:

twenty-five powerful poems

five stars

I will give you a quote from the introduction, which is in prose, to provide a first feel for Pura’s descriptive power: “Aunt Helen would bring me intricately decorated eggs at Easter. Whenever I visited her home it was like visiting a foreign country – icons with dark eyes brooded on the walls, pickles and dill floated like pike among lake weed in huge glass jars, pictures of the Pope blessing a crowd and of Jesus opening his chest to a Sacred Heart mingled with a photograph of her father, my grandfather and namesake, lying in his coffin, hands clasped on his chest.”

You will be ambushed by the poem Cottonwoods, which begins thus: “if there are cottonwoods in Ukraine /they will tell different stories //mine speak of the buffalo and the Blackfoot /jade waters wind about their roots /and have their own words...” which leads to a surprise gut-punch ending.

Belonging and alienation are weirdly captured in She Traced my Body on Paper, which begins thus: “She traced my body on paper /And ignored the chill I felt on my skin /As she moved her pencil down my neck /Over my shoulders and down past my heart //Over the pattern of my life...”

I have too many favourites here to mention them all, so I’ll skip to The Girl at the Airport, which is sort-of a love poem told amidst the horror of war, including these fragments: “i met Savella where /smoke wound like the black dreams you cannot remember /but which are snaked too tight to leave your mind...” and later “we fought for the airport by Donetsk /where she held an assault rifle /and it was the shattering and breaking of men...” and “I saw the liquid around her eyes /and the current beneath her skin...” and “killing became kisses /wounds gave way to passions /she had no english /it made no difference...” Now if you think that’s a spoiler, turn to the poem and let Pura tell you the rest of it. You will be surprised.

No carps in this review. No typos. Nothing but powerful imagery and strong experiences.

I will conclude by mentioning War House, which begins thus: “I have seen houses /Where the only things moving /Were shirts and pants pinned to a clothesline /Flipping up and over in a blue sky wind...” Here the tragedy of being caught in a war is described with brutal simplicity.

For me, star counts are hard. I try to be consistent. My personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. This time, five stars was an easy decision. Enjoy. Pura stands among the great writers of descriptive experience.

Kindle Book Review Team member.

(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)

About the Book: This is the story of a war. But it is also a story of human love and beauty and faith that the sun will rise again over a nation torn by terrible conflict. If a novel is like live streaming or Netflix, then poetry is a gallery of HD images taken with your iPhone or Nikon DSLR, each picture sharp and crystalline and rich with color and meaning, etched in your mind forever thanks to its precision and brilliance. This is a small book of such high definition images, vivid snaps of one man's journey through the recent military conflict in Ukraine. People's faces are here, fields of flowers are here, impossibly blue skies and sharp suns, roads and streets and windows that remain perfectly intact even though the rest of the house has been blown to pieces. Love is here, and peace sits in the same room as pain, while hope has more strength than killing or death. The man's words are beautiful and true and, as real as the war he fights is, dawn and tomorrow are more real. Parts of it will tell your story. Parts of it will become your story. Parts of it will take you on a journey you never expected to take. That is the power of poetry in motion. Begin at this man's beginning.

About the Reviewer: Jim Bennett is a poet: five volumes available here; and published in The Fiddlehead, Event, The New Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. Jim started writing poetry in high school, thought a handwritten poem had been created by a student who’d sat in the same desk earlier that day. Mentored by one English teacher, and rekindled by Richard Ketchum, Jim never looked back. Jim Bennett is an unlikely poet: M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics, programmer, designer, and application architect at IBM, CIBC, and SimVest Solutions, you’d expect a techie’s techy and be correct. Still, Jim has varied interests and views his career(s) as funding for himself, his wife, their children, and writing. (Poets rarely get rich by their poems; Jim suspected this and directed his efforts accordingly). Jim takes pictures; images on jim-bennett.ca are his, and cover images on his last three volumes. He keeps tropical fish, but is not expert. Jim Bennett is a poet. Everything else is secondary, except his wife and children.

To see more titles from this publisher, search "MillerWords" on Amazon Kindle. To see more from author Murray Pura, please visit: Murray Pura Writing on Facebook. Jim Bennett reviews for the site Kindle Book Review and has his own blog at http://jim-bennett.ca

Something Close to Home

I live in Mt. Dora, FL. I work close to home. I shop close to home. On Facebook, I have "friends" all over the world. Turns out, one of those friends is an author that also lives in Florida. Leona Bodie is the Vice President of the Florida Writers Association and she shared a touching story with me recently. It is about two other authors from Florida and I wanted to share it with you.....

Hospice of the Comforter and Florida Writers Association Join Forces to Help One Dying Man’s Final Wish Come True

A TERMINALLY ILL PATIENT’S DREAM IS REALIZED THANKS TO THE DEDICATED EFFORTS OF A VOLUNTEER WITH HOSPICE OF THE COMFORTER, DOUG DILLON.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla… Meet Hospice of the Comforter patient Tony Mancuso. He offers you the best smile he can, given his physical situation while at theGarnet Heart group home in Altamonte Springs, Fla. And meet Doug Dillon, a volunteer with Hospice of the Comforter of Central Florida, whose patient is Tony.

During one of Doug’s visit, he learned that Tony was a writer and before he got sick, published 1,200 copies of his first novel titled, The Lie Catcher, where he uses first names of family members and friends as the first names for characters in his book.The 230-page Christian mystery novel tells the story of Kevin Petty, an ex-FBI profiler, as he struggles to solve a bizarre case for a Central Florida police department.

Finally realizing he would never be able to market his books, Tony told Doug that he would at least like to give them away in hopes that some people might enjoy the story. Meet Doug Dillon, again, also a published author with multiple books, including An Explosion of Being, and a member of the Florida Writers Association (FWA), whose motto for the statewide group is, “Writers Helping Writers”…and this story tugged at his heartstrings.

Doug approached Rose van der Berg, director of volunteer services at Hospice of the Comforter, to see how they might help Tony’s dying wish come true.

Rose loved the idea and together they started distributing copies of the book to volunteers and churches. Included in the book was a letter from Tonyexplaining his situation and asking readers to consider dropping him a note at his group home and telling him what they thought of his work.

Here is an excerpt from Tony’s note: “Please accept this book, The Lie Catcher, as a gift from me to you. I wrote it a while back, hoping to get it out into the world through proper marketing but God had other plans for me. After suffering a debilitating stroke, I find myself living in a group home and under the care of Hospice of the Comforter. So, instead of selling my book, I decided to give it away to people who might find it of interest. It really makes me happy to know that you are taking a copy and I very much hope you enjoy it.”

Over the next few months, over 100 books were distributed and Tony received cards of appreciation from his readers that pleased him to no end.

But Doug was determined to see Tony’s dream come true, so he contacted Chrissy Jackson, president of FWA and asked if there was any way she could help Tony. Chrissy’s enthusiastically responded, “Of course, we can help!” She explained that they could distribute 600 of Tony’s books at the annual Florida Writers Conference in October at the Orlando Marriott Hotel in Lake Mary. Chrissy agreed to put the books into the goody bags for every participant. Rose and Hospice of the Comforter staff prepared 600 letters and books and delivered them to the conference.

To open the event, Chrissy presented the Tony Mancuso project to the 500 assembled writers from across Florida. She outlined the history of the project and made a heartfelt plea for all attendees to glance at Tony’s book and send him a card. She even set up a huge flip chart so people could write notes to Tony. Throughout the conference, people stopped Doug to tell him how much Tony’s story touched them.

Doug enlarged a photo of the himself and Chrissy holding Tony’s book and the signed sheets into a large poster…that and all the newsprint sheets were placed on Tony’s wall, and cards started coming in for him from the other writers. Even as weak as he was, his smile and eyes widened as he looks at what his book had done. “I can’t thank everyone enough for all they did,” he said.

On October 30, 2011, Doug got a call from Tony’s wife, Lynda Mancuso. She was at his bedside in tears. Tony had just died. Doug had shared a kindred spirit with this stranger that became his friend. But as Doug explains, “My experience in life tells me that a part of us continues on after death and I know Tony is okay. And as I think about it, I strongly suspect he held on until after the Florida Writers Conference.”

It is not often in the work of a Hospice of the Comforter volunteer that one can do something extraordinary for patients beyond befriending, but Doug was lucky enough to have that opportunity with Tony. Doug shared his belief about his volunteer experiences, “If you act on what you find, those smiles you get in return will warm your heart forever.”

For more information about Hospice of the Comforter, call 407-682-0808 or visit www.HospiceoftheComforter.org.  

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BOOK: To receive a copy of The Lie Catcher to review, please email your request including your (1) name, (2) company, (3) mailing address and (4) phone number tochristinestickney@hospiceofthecomforter.org

VISUALS: Photos included; for higher resolution images, please contact Christine Stickney at 407-379-0177 (office) or christinestickney@hospiceofthecomforter.org

INTERVIEWS: To speak with Doug Dillon or Rose van der Berg, please contact Christine Stickney at 407-379-0177 (office) or christinestickney@hospiceofthecomforter.org.

About Hospice of the ComforterHospice of the Comforter, the only nonprofit hospice serving in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, cared for over 23,000 patients and their families with physical, emotional and spiritual support since 1990. Hospice of the Comforter provided more than $500,000 in care over the past year to those uninsured and under-insured. For more information about how Hospice of the Comforter serves the community, call 407-682-0808. Enhanced Resources on www.HospiceoftheComforter.org includes Online Tributes, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance, and English-Spanish Site Conversion.

Take a Moment to Silently Reflect

I have, in my writing career, come to be associated with some truly amazing people. The list is too long to name them all and I wouldn't want to forget anybody. Let me say these are not only talented people in the world of books (authors, publishers, promoters), but also some terrifically kind and generous folks. These are people that work hard and always have a positive word.

There is one person I would like to single out and call my friend, although we have never met face to face. Giovanni Gelati is a blogger, book reviewer, author, publisher, promoter and graphic artist. He is affirming, generous and supportive, but also aggressive in helping his friends/authors with their promotions.

You may find his reviews of my work to be a little bias based on what I said above, but I am humbled by his kind words of my two most recent releases.

Daniel's Lot is my adaptation of the faith-based motion picture about a man tested in his personal and professional life. He turns to his faith and finds an amazing answer. The movie is available on DVD and soon to be on syndicated cable TV.

Meant To Be is the debut story for Mark Miller's One, a spiritual anthology of true stories. The series, which I am honored to headline for Trestle Press, will explore beliefs from around the world and how we all must live on this one planet.

You can read the review for Daniel's Lot at this link:

Gelati's Scoop Reviews Daniel's Lot

You can read the review for Meant To Be at this link:

Gelati's Scoop Reviews Meant To Be

Thank you for taking the time to give them a read!

Showcase #6

Recently, I was invited to join the group Writers of the South (USA). It is a small, but enthusiastic group of authors in every type of genre. The group is aimed at supporting and promoting authors in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee.

As we grow, we plan to take several opportunities to showcase the varied and talented people in the group. We will hit it hard over the next couple of days, hopefully gaining some new exposure and introducing you to writings you might not have found otherwise. Looking at the group, there is something for everyone, so be sure to check these posts every day.  The plan is to do this again in a few months.

Today, the spotlight shines on Lindy Chaffin Start!

Lindy says, "I'm passionate about my life, my work, art, music, food. I love my family and friends. I've just gotten a little older and a little wiser, and I continue to love taking risks."

She is a poet and romance writer with a great blog that features plenty of reviews. Visit her SITE to get connected to Lindy and read what she has to say.

Rave Reviews for "Prince"!

Check out these great reviews for my Trestle Press Author's Lab short story "A Prince in Trenton, Seriously?" with Giovanni Gelati!

Molly from Reviews by Molly says, "It is clean cut, and absolutely HILARIOUS!" Click HERE to read her full review.


Author and Librarian Werner calls it "[his] favorite series entry so far!" Click HERE to read his full review.


Then go here to grab it for Kindle at ONLY $0.99!