✍The First Page: Raising the Dead by Jayne Lisbeth

 

RAISING THE DEAD

By Jayne Lisbeth

Publication Date: August 15, 2023

Ghost Fiction/Mystery/Supernatural/Women/Friendship/Love

Jayne Lisbeth’s second novel, Raising the Dead,  is a coming of age book which delves into the importance of friendship between women and men, strangers and spirits. 

Raising the Dead, bookmarked in the year 1979, is the exploration of a young bride’s struggle towards maturity and overcoming the depths of grief.  Ms. Lisbeth’s beautiful, poetic prose weaves history, love, friendship, reading,  culinary arts, crafts and the beauty of nature into the development of Emeline, the protagonist of this remarkable work. 

Synopsis: 

 Emeline, a new bride, has been  transported from her beloved home in the California Delta by her husband with their move to his mother’s home city, Charles Town, in Virginia.  Marooned in grief after the deaths of her beloved parents. a mysterious elderly woman, Felicity, befriends her. Through Felicity Emeline learns to love reading, cooking. She also becomes confident enough to reach out to others and form new friendships. Felicity teaches Emeline the craft of chair caning, which becomes a lucrative enterprise which further assists Emeline in her search for independence and maturity. When Emeline is most dependent on Felicity her friend mysteriously disappears. With the assistance of her new-found friends Emeline searches and discovers for her lost friend. Through the love of  friendship, her husband and her friends assist Emeline in her search for Felicity, Emeline’s mentor and “other mother,”  Emeline discovers a frightening spiritual reality which uplifts her in unimaginable ways. Through friendship she learns the value of love and the enduring spirit of those who have touched her life, even if they are no longer among the living.

Raising the Dead is a mystery to be unearthed by the reader in these poetic pages.  Loveable and quirky characters, both living and dead, entrance and entertain. Reviewers of Raising the Dead  “can’t put this book down” until they discover how and where Emeline finds her dear friend. Emeline’s  friendships, the development of her relationship with her husband and her search for Felicity help this young bride to move into her future. Emeline is a beloved heroine worthy of the most sophisticated and avid readers.

Raising the Dead is available at Amazon.

 

                     

One hundred and fifty-five years after Mildred Hanson’s death, Randy Upswatch carried his bride, Emeline Jannison Upswatch, across the threshold of Cabin #25. Randy gently set Emeline down on the heart pine kitchen floor. The windows let in bright splashes of the morning light through the wavy old glass. The antique black wood stove squatted in a corner, next to a small
fireplace with an open hearth. The original porcelain sink had been retained but over the years the plumbing had been modernized. Across the room an old gas stove nestled adjacent to a vintage Frigidaire. A scarred wood plank shelf was built into the wall between the stove and
refrigerator, with drawers installed beneath. Knotty pine cabinets provided plenty of room for Em’s collection of antique bowls and pitchers. Next to the fireplace, a pantry with floor to ceiling shelves completed the kitchen, empty storage begging to be filled.
Emeline’s heart lifted, then sank, when she remembered the days she and her Mama, Cleo, had filled their own pantry shelves. Mother and daughter would process their Sacramento Delta crops into jeweled jars of vegetables, relishes, jams, pickles and chutneys. Her eyes teared up, which she quickly hid from Randy. She scolded herself. Damn, girl, it’s been two years since Mama’s passing……isn’t it time for you to move on? she thought to herself.
“Sure wish I’d paid more attention to Mama’s cooking,” she said aloud.
“What?” Randy asked.
“Oh! I didn’t realize I said that out loud. Just thinking that Mama always needed my help with
jamming and canning, but never taught me to cook. She really wanted her kitchen all to herself.”
But Randy didn’t hear this response as he was busily exploring the rest of the cabin. “Holy Shit,
Em, lookit this!” he exclaimed. Emeline followed Randy down a central hallway leading to other
rooms. At one end of the central hall was the largest bedroom. Windows sparkled as lacy light
fell through the trees surrounding the cabin. The smaller bedroom, at the opposite end of the
hallway seemed forlorn. A large tree shadowed the room, darkening the interior. In the center of
the hallway and next to the kitchen was a small bathroom boasting an enormous clawfoot tub. A
window over the tub with a deep sill would be perfect for African Violets and geraniums, Em
thought.
In the center of the long hallway was their living room. It was just big enough to hold their old
couch, her mama’s ancient Lincoln rocker, and two end tables. An old black stove, sitting on a
raised platform of bricks was nestled in a corner of the room.

  

Jayne Lisbeth was born in NYC and continued her life’s journey from Long Island, to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, California and Tampa, all places featured prominently in her writing.  Her first book, a memoir, Writing In Wet Cement has been published internationally by London based publisher, Austin Macauley. Jayne’s second book, Raising the Dead, a work of historical fiction, mystery, friendship and the supernatural, was published in 2023, also by Austin Macauley.  Ms. Lisbeth publishes monthly “Food for Thought” blogs on her website, Jaynelisbeth.com. Her “Food for Thought” blogs are based on her reflections of  life, friendship, love, and topical subjects of interest. Ms. Lisbeth’s non-fiction, poetry, and short stories have been published from Vermont to California to Tampa, Florida where she has received awards at the local level. She has been published locally in Pages of Our Life, volumes I and II which is currently part of the USF, Tampa, Geriartic Studies Programs. Ms. Lisbeth’s short stories have been published in the LEC Phoenix Anthologies, 2015-2023. Jayne’s interests include writing, reading, exploring, traveling, calligraphy, gravestone rubbing, entertaining and cooking.  Jayne’s author’s website is Jaynelisbeth.com. Ms. Lisbeth and her artist husband, Tim Gibbons, are the owners and founders of Funky As A Monkey Art Studio, providing art in public places and launching new and emerging artists in exhibiting their art.

Author Links  

Website | Amazon Website | Publisher’s Website | Facebook | Instagram

✍The First Page: The Shade Under the Mango Tree by Evy Journey

 

 The Shade Under the Mango Tree: Between Two Worlds Book 5

by Evy Journey

Cultural Heritage Fiction / Women's Fiction

After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference. She ends up in place steeped in an ancient culture and a deadly history.

Raised by her grandmother in a Honolulu suburb, she moves to her parents’ home in California at thirteen and meets her brothers for the first time. Grandma persuades her to write a journal whenever she’s lonely or overwhelmed as a substitute for someone to whom she could reveal her intimate thoughts.

Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. He has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it. But they don’t stop him. His decision to go on reading changes his life.

Months later, they meet at a bookstore where Luna works and which Lucien frequents. Fascinated by his stories and his adventurous spirit, Luna volunteers for the Peace Corps. Assigned to Cambodia, she lives with a family whose parents are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide forty years earlier. What she goes through in a rural rice-growing village defies anything she could have imagined. Will she leave this world unscathed?

Inspired by the healing effects of writing, this is an epistolary tale of love—between an idealistic young woman and her grandmother and between the young woman and a young architect. It’s a tale of courage, resilience of the human spirit, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFMR9SG

Also available as an audiobook: 

https://www.amazon.com/Shade-Under-Mango-Tree-Between/dp/B09X7CPYFD/

Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shade-under-the-mango-tree-evy-journey/1137986157?ean=2940166256980

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-shade-under-the-mango-tree-1

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-shade-under-the-mango-tree/id1606925369

 

 

                     

Prologue

Luna: February 2016 

Ov’s thin upper body is slumped over his crossed legs, his forehead resting on the platform. His brown, wiry arms lie limp, the right one extended forward, hand dangling over the edge of the platform. Dried blood is splattered on his head, and on the collar, right shoulder, and back of his old short-sleeved white shirt.

It seems fitting that he died where he used to spend most of his time when he wasn’t on the rice fields—sitting on a corner of the bamboo platform in the ceiling-high open space under the house. It’s where you get refreshing breezes most afternoons, after a long day of work.

The policeman looks down at Ov’s body as if he’s unsure what to do next. He lays down his camera and the gun in a plastic bag at one end of the platform untainted by splatters of gelled blood.

He steps closer to the body, anchors himself with one knee on top of the platform, and bends over the body. Hooking his arms underneath Ov’s shoulders and upper arms, he pulls the body up, and carefully lays it on its back. He straightens the legs.

 

Evy Journey writes. Stories and blog posts. Novels that tend to cross genres. She’s also a wannabe artist, and a flâneuse.

Evy studied psychology (M.A., University of Hawaii; Ph.D. University of Illinois). So her fiction spins tales about nuanced characters dealing with contemporary life issues and problems. She believes in love and its many faces.

Her one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She has visited and stayed a few months at a time.

Website or Blog: https://evyjourney.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ejourneywriter/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14845365.Evy_Journey

 

✍The First Page: The Key to Circus-Mom Highway by Allyson Rice

 

 

 The Key to Circus-Mom Highway

by Allyson Rice

Contemporary Fiction/Women's Fiction

In an attempt to secure an unexpected inheritance—and hopefully find a few answers—two estranged sisters and their newly discovered brother embark on a comically surreal trip through the Deep South to retrace the life of the mother who abandoned them as infants.

On a Tuesday afternoon, sisters Jesse Chasen and Jennifer McMahon receive a phone call notifying them that their birth mother has died, leaving behind a significant inheritance. But in order to obtain it, they must follow a detailed road trip she designed for them to get to know her—and that includes finding a brother they never knew existed.

For the next week, this ill-assorted trio treks across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to meet their mother’s old friends, from circus performers to a juke joint owner, each of whom delivers a shocking vignette into the life of a young mother traumatized by loss and abuse. Along the way, these three siblings—Jesse, whose fiery exterior disguises a wounded, drifting musician stuck in a rut; Jennifer, whose carefully curated family life is threatened by her husband’s infidelity; and Jack, whose enigmatic Jackie, Oh! persona in the New Orleans drag queen scene helps him escape the nightmares of Afghanistan that haunt him at night—must confront their own demons (and at least one alligator). But in chasing the truth about their real mother, they may all just find their second chance.

This uproarious debut novel is a reminder that sometimes, the family you’d never have chosen may turn out to be exactly what you need.

"This breezy, charming tale incisively shows a family's bittersweet facets.” –Kirkus Reviews

A "feverish, entertaining novel" –Foreward Clarion Reviews

“In this rollicking family dramedy, debut author Rice sends three lovable siblings on a zany yet touching road trip… Rice’s sharp observations of society’s absurdity verge on the satirical… Fans of family drama, road trips, and non-stop laughs will love this cross-country adventure.” –BookLife

Release Date: Paperback: November 27, 2022; Kindle: January 3, 2023

Publisher: The Total Human Press

Soft Cover: 978-0982185544; 270 pages

Amazon:https://amzn.to/3XHsOiU 

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-key-to-circus-mom-highway-allyson-rice/1142037363?ean=9780982185544

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-key-to-circus-mom-highway 

Target: https://www.target.com/p/the-key-to-circus-mom-highway-by-allyson-rice-paperback/-/A-87939489

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62003645-the-key-to-circus-mom-highway 

 

 

                      

Twenty-two-point-four miles, one Bud Light, and a third of a bottle of Fireball later, they had just passed through Alamo and were approaching Glenwood. Jennifer was trying to concentrate on anything other than Sy’s unfortunate singing. She was focused intently on the map on her phone. It was only 113.8 more miles to Savannah, though that wasn’t much comfort to her considering that the relatively short drive from Milan had been the Longest. Twenty-two-point-four-miles. Ever. Sy’s driving had become more “freeform” in direct correlation to his impressive alcohol consumption; and his off-key singing was boring a hole through the temporal lobes in Jennifer’s brain. Especially after he insisted on replaying the theme from Bonanza seven times in a row (for luck).

Allyson Rice is a writer, an award-winning mixed media artist, and a producer with Atomic Focus Entertainment, currently splitting her time between Los Angeles, CA, and Rehoboth Beach, DE. She’s a graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Communication. After spending many years as an actress on stage and on television, she left acting and spent the next decade running yoga/meditation retreats, women’s retreats, and creativity retreats around the country. After that, she pivoted to focus once again on her own creative work. In addition to her writing and art, she’s also a photographer (her work was most recently chosen for an exhibition at the Soho Photo Gallery in NYC).


Some random bits of Allyson trivia: 1) She’s been skydiving, paragliding, bungee jumping, ziplining through a rainforest, and scuba diving with stingrays; 2) she has an extensive PEZ dispenser collection; 3) she played Connor Walsh on As the World Turns for seven years; 4) she’s been in the Oval Office at the White House after hours; 5) she’s related to the Hatfields of the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud; and 6) her comedic rap music video “Fine, I’ll Write My Own Damn Song” won numerous awards in the film festival circuit and can now be seen on YouTube https://youtu.be/7Xe3nuVDkC4.


Also available from Allyson Rice is her line of women’s coloring books (The Color of Joy, Dancing with Life, and Wonderland), and The Creative Prosperity PlayDeck, an inspirational card deck about unlocking and utilizing your creative energy in the world. She’s currently at work on her second novel and her fourth women’s coloring book. But she is most proud of being mom to musical artist @_zanetaylor.

Website: www.allysonrice.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CircusMomHwy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllysonRiceAuthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allysonriceauthor/

https://www.instagram.com/allysonriceart/

https://www.instagram.com/officialallysonrice/

My e-commerce site:

https://www.allyson-wonderland.com

✍The First Page & Interview: DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION by Maria J. Andrade

 

DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION:

A LIFETIME OF UNBROKEN BONDS

by Maria J. Andrade

Based on a true story, Defiance and Redemption, A Lifetime of Unbroken Bonds, brings to life the joys, dramas, and triumphs of two sisters, Eva and Victoria Alisio and their loyal friend Marta. The sisters are raised by their atheist Grandfather Marcus and religious Grandmother Maria Luisa. Eva, a proud and strong-willed young woman defies her family, society, and culture, faces scandal and disgrace, for her forbidden love affair. Victoria finds herself in the center of a multigenerational conflict as her benefactor bestows a great inheritance on her excluding the rightful heirs. Marta, loyal to the childhood bond with the Alisio sisters, brings humor and support to their twists and turns of fortune. The young women’s bond of love, and perseverance, carries them through ordinary and extraordinary losses, triumphs, and ultimately to their destiny in the United States.

An important novel about 20th Century women, Defiance and Redemption, is an absorbing epic that moves through decades and destinies. It blends personal and historical events into a collective tale of self-determination, love, and sisterhood.

 

 

The national swimming champion, Eduardo Velasquez, lay dying in a hospital bed in Ecuador, South America. His stomach was filled with cancer. He had always lived for the present, so he rarely ever thought of his death, least of all at fifty-two. In the hospital room were six of his children. The eldest, Amalia, was standing close by his bedside. She was the product of his relationship with the great passion of his life, Eva, a woman he had loved and lost.

     At the foot of the bed, across the room, was Dolores, his wife of twenty years, and her adolescent children. On the other side of his bed, seated by the wall, were two young adult children from his extramarital affairs. He had brought these children to his wife to raise when they were infants.

     Many miles away, two more of his illegitimate children would leave their jungle home and arrive in threadbare clothing the following day to attend his funeral at La Immaculada Concepción church. The two would enter the church, misspell their last name on the guest roster and weep in each other’s arms. At the church, they would find well-known sports figures, celebrities from the world of entertainment, politicians, and the news media from various parts of South America. Many of the citizens of Guayaquil would be there to file through the church and pay their respects to their hero and champion.

     Few in Eduardo’s family would notice the two offspring until later. When their identities were discovered, many would be shocked and outraged. Many, but not his daughter Amalia. She loved her father with the bittersweet adoration her mother had imbued in her. She loved him with blindness, which forgave him everything, his extramarital affairs, his illegitimate children, even the fact that he had spent little time in her life.

     But Dolores, his wife, could not forgive him. She had suffered too many of his infidelities. Through the years, her resentment had turned into bitterness and eventually a weary resignation. Yet, she often comforted herself with the rationalization that she was his wife. The other women had been mere interludes in his life. Her position in society was clearly defined and well regarded.

     In her culture, it was common and even expected that men would misbehave and that the consequences might be illegitimate children. That was nothing new. Yet sometimes, as the men aged, they settled down. They would then spend their older years in the company of their patient wives and beloved grandchildren. This had long been Dolores’ hope, a hope that died when Eduardo’s cancer was discovered three months earlier.

     Now, she felt the ultimate betrayal. He would abandon her once again, this time, forever. Not only was this fatal reality approaching, but he also was dying without a will, a fact that further complicated her life. She had her attorney fashion a will making her and her children universal heirs, but Eduardo would not sign it. No matter how many times she placed his weak hand on the document, his eyes would look at it, he’d whisper, “no,” and he would drop the pen.

Welcome to the blog! The first page is perhaps one of the most important pages in the whole book. It’s what draws the reader into the story. Why did you choose to begin your book this way?

This novel is based on a true story which includes the passing of my father. I wanted to begin and end the story with his death, and everything in between would go back in time. As an aside, Ernest Hemingway once said, “Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from you.”

 

In the course of writing your book, how many times would you say that first page changed and for what reasons?

It didn’t change substantially because it fundamentally occurred as I described it. Any rewriting was more to do with editing in terms of grammar and the like, or because I had to be careful to change character’s names for the sake of privacy and to stay true to the fact that this is a fiction novel not a memoir.

Was there ever a time after the book was published that you wished you had changed something on the first page?

No.

What advice can you give to aspiring authors to stress how important the first page is?

In some of the most classic stories in literature not just the first page but the first sentence is important in a reader’s decision to keep reading. Here are some examples.

“You better not tell anyone but God.” Alice Walker, The Color Purple  

You are hooked to find out what is the secret?

“If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.” Saul Bellow, Herzog

Why is it ok?  Tell me more!

George Orwell, 1984, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

Thirteen? I know this is going to be a strange world.

In Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” 

You want to find what kind of environment is this? Let me read on!

If you can get the reader from the first sentence to continue through the first page, hopefully the reader will be engrossed and continue engrossed until the end.

Thank you, Hooked On Page One for your invitation! You ask great questions and I hope readers enjoyed learning about my new novel as I enjoyed sharing the insights with them!

Maria J. Andrade was born in Ecuador, South America, and raised in New York and California. She has a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. As a licensed therapist and writer, Maria has been diving into other people’s minds and her own, through dreams, poetry, and books for over three decades. She traveled with the Four Winds Society where she studied and was initiated into Andean shamanism in 1990.

Before Maria retired as a therapist, she specialized in women’s issues and founded the Wise Women’s Circle a ritualistic and transpersonal study group that continues today. The women support each other through life’s challenges and in the growth of mind, body, and spirit.

Maria Andrade’s books for children and adults is found in a variety of genres. This is an unforgettable first novel that reflects her imagination and creative storytelling.

Defiance and Redemption is her latest release.

Visit her website at www.booksasfriends.com or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

✍The First Page & Interview: HONEYMOON ROULETTE by Irene Woodbury

HONEYMOON ROULETTE

by Irene Woodbury

To marry or not to marry Connor J. Barrington? That is the question Roxy Drake faces one hour before her wedding, when she discovers her handsome fiance may have murdered his first two wives. Did Connor kill Annie and Charlotte, or simply let them die? Does Roxy become wife number three, or the runaway bride from hell? Find out in the darkly funny Honeymoon Roulette.

 

Drybar blow-out:  check.

         MAC make-up session:  check.

         Heirloom pearl strand:  check.

         Designer wedding gown:  check.

         It was January 14, 2017, and Roxy Drake was all set to marry Connor J. Barrington in just one short hour. But then the phone rang. Mom was on the other end, breathing fire. 

         “Sweetheart, whatever you’re doing, stop, and get your buns down here, pronto! There’s something urgent we need to discuss with you.”

         Oh God, what now, Roxy thought, rolling her eyes at her best friend and maid of honor, Amy Powell, lounging on a sky-blue love seat across the room.

 

The first page is perhaps one of the most important pages in the whole book. It’s what draws the reader into the story. Why did you choose to begin your book this way?

I agree, the first page is one of the most important. In Honeymoon, it reveals that Roxy is a person with a certain amount of wealth and sophistication. She’s also a nice, fun, down-to-earth bride who’s about to be married in an hour, and her mom is a pushy, bossy woman that she often has problems dealing with. These are all important factors in setting up the novel..

In the course of writing your book, how many times would you say that first page changed and for what reasons?

It probably changed about 20 times. Mostly, it was the very beginning where I list all the things Roxy has done to prepare for the wedding with the word Check beside them. It took a while to come up with that, instead of just a straightforward sentence.

Was there ever a time after the book was published that you wished you had changed something on the first page?

No.

What advice can you give to aspiring authors to stress how important the first page is?

On the first page, you have to grab your readers and keep them! There are just too many other books and too many other options. Readers can switch off and on in seconds.

Try to relax and write a first page you love that sets up the tone of the book. Be prepared to do it 50 times if you have to.  It is the most important page in the book.

 

Luckily for all you fans of romantic fiction, Irene Woodbury knows that what happens in Las Vegas doesn’t have to stay there. The Denver-based author has captured the heart and soul of Sin City in four colorful, suspenseful novels.

In the gritty, engrossing Romeo Stalker (2021), a Vegas showgirl’s life is plunged into stalker-hell when her ex returns from prison and learns she has a new boyfriend. Love and Payback (2021) is a dark, dramatic look at a married woman’s mysterious death in Sin City, where she has gone to meet an Internet love.

In the darkly humorous Honeymoon Roulette (2021), a bride goes rogue after learning her handsome fiance may have killed his first two wives. And A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis (2021) is the vibrant, funny story of a mixed-up newlywed who goes to Vegas for a girls’ weekend that never ends.

Irene, a successful travel writer whose favorite destinations are London and Las Vegas, is currently working on another novel.

You can visit her website at www.irenewoodbury.com or connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.