Tag Archives: book reviews

Dream Traveler: new time travel mystery

Hi all,

Mark and I have finished the time travel we’ve been working on for a year.  Back and forth from 2015 to 2027, with things changing, Alex and Jenna uncovering new clues, Alex exhausted from the time travel and living two days on one night’s sleep.

I guess I should give you clue of the story, huh?

Here is a rough cover, not finalized….

The back cover blurb:

Jenna McCowan has learned to live with her precognitive visions. Most she brushes aside, but one will not be ignored: a handwritten list of seven names. One belongs to her friend Daniel Bridges, who has just died.

Then a man appears in her vision.

Alex Burgess is a Boston journalist who practices lucid dreaming. One night, he dreams he is standing in a park, watching a woman hide something behind a loose brick in a wall. When he wakes and goes into that park, he finds a list of seven names, exactly where she tucked it.

The following night, it happens again. He finds himself in the park, but his time he meets Jenna, and they discover an impossible truth: she is living in 2015. He is living in 2026. Alex has somehow traveled eleven years into the past.

Then Alex discovers something even more disturbing. In 2026, five of the seven men on Jenna’s list are dead. They died within two weeks of one another. In 2015.

Jenna and Alex only have a few days to identify the men and prevent their deaths. Their first attempt succeeds. Then Alex wakes in 2026 to learn that the man they saved from an accident died anyway—stabbed later that same day.

As Jenna and Alex work to save the remaining men, they discover that the victims share a secret someone is desperate to keep hidden. The closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous their interference becomes.

Then their investigation puts Jenna in the sights of the killer.

STAY TUNED! 

Music and Healing: I Heard There Was a Secret Chord

I am reading a fascinating book. I’ve always known, deep inside, that music had healing potential, but lately we are beginning to see proof!

 

The book, a bestseller by Daniel Levitin is entitled I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, named one of Smithsonian’s 10 Best Science Books of the Year.  Levitin is a neuroscientist who presents results of numerous studies on the brain and music, showing how music can contribute to the treatment of ailments such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression, and chronic pain.  The author is also a musician and composer, the right combination of talents and passions to bring us this information.

Playing a musical instrument improves physical dexterity, mental acuity and builds new brain connections, and on a lighter note, simply lifts your mood!

I was particularly impressed by Levitan’s examples of Joni Mitchell and Bobby McFerrin. By using music therapy, these two well-known singers regained the ability to sing after suffering a stroke.

The book is mostly easy to read, if slightly technical in places, and is insightful and inspiring. And its message helps me justify the hours I spend listening to music! As if we need any justification! 

 

Where do creative ideas come from?

Maybe ideas float around our combined consciousness, as a species, to be received by those with the best antennae! We are radio stations, attuned to pick up the frequencies of ideas. When I was very young, as a singer-songwriter in the UK, I had the chance to work with Tommy Boyce, the songwriter who had some terrific hits with the Monkees in the seventies.  He nailed it for me. He said, “In the middle of the night, if I get a song idea or lyric, I better get my butt out of bed and write it down, or it will go back up the chimney and come down Paul McCartney’s chimney.”

Has anyone read Dan Brown’s Secret of Secrets? Its a fun fast-paced thriller, but he manages to introduce this idea to larger audience. Secret of Secrets

If this interests you, check out the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).  Very interesting site and it includes supporting research.

Fantasy novels. We’ve always been fans!

 

I’ve always loved fantasy fiction, and as Mark and I have been writing our time travel mystery, Dream Traveler,  I thought it would be fun to start a conversation about great books we love, especially fantasy books.  

Mary Stewart has long been a favorite author of mine, and my husband’s too. Her  three-book Arthurian Saga is a masterpiece. Mark and I read The Crystal Cave out loud to each other years ago, just for fun, but also because Mark is a fabulous voice over artist/narrator and it keeps his chops up. 

Mark wrote this review for The Crystal Cave.

The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga, #1)

Many know Merlin as Arthur’s mentor and wizard but little of his beginnings. Mary Stewart’s tale starts with his very birth and carries us through his childhood and adolescence to adulthood. Some authors get bogged down in description and let it interfere with the telling of the story. Stewart’s descriptive prose is the story. Her ability to set temporal and geographic tone is flawless. In The Crystal Cave we not only get to know Merlin, we get to understand the worlds through which he floats. As a reader I truly appreciate writing that creates a window into another world. Mary Stewart opened that window, then opened the door and invited me in.
Mark Carey

Writing style: “elegantly uncomplicated”

REVIEWS FOR EVA:

 
In a beautiful review for “Eva” the reviewer stated that my writing was “elegantly uncomplicated.” I was thrilled. That is a high compliment, in my view.
 
I took an oath, to myself, after college creative writing classes. I vowed: Simple. Just say it. Go for Hemingway-esque with passion and suspense. Don’t use two words when one will do. Get out of yourself, Diane and just tell the story.
 
Years later, when I edited the thesis for my homeopathic degree, I realized I had been showing off my Writing, with a big ole’ capital W… So I edited to rub off its intellectual rough edges. To make it easily comprehensible.


DON’T BE CAUGHT WRITING!

And with fiction, I don’t want anyone yanked out of the story because they’ve noticed my writing. I want them lost in it, for them to forget they are reading a book. To me, that is the ultimate goal. I don’t read ( and certainly don’t write) literary fiction. It is too often self-involved. Self aware. It feels as if the author was sunk into her writing experience, forgetting the reading experience. (Perhaps we are looking at the difference between art and performance, but I think that’s another blog!)
 
I am a storyteller, a performer, and a communicator, and that can’t be filled up with obtuse, often unintelligible words or sentences. If someone reads a long sentence and has to go back and read it again to understand the message, in my view the author has failed. I need no one to think I am erudite and intellectual. I want them to be moved by the story.
 
AI hasn’t learned it yet. It is clever, too clever, with every adjective and enthusiastic turn of phrase. And it’s repetitive. Everything I read from AI needs a good editor. When AI gets more astute and evolved, watch out. But I bet it will never move you like a human author can. An author who shares a story with the river of emotion running through her blood. That you can feel when you read her words. There’s nothing like that for me.


What do you think?

Fascinating book, “Soulful.”

I have just read the most fascinating book on Artificial Intelligence, entitled “Soulful” by David Espindola.

The ethics question around AI has been bothering me, but this author tackles the artificial intelligence concepts from all sides. A thought-provoking read!

Here is my review:

“Soulful: You in the Future of Artificial Intelligence”

“Soulful” is a comprehensive narrative, well written, well researched, and nicely referenced. I have read several books delving into AI recently, and was shocked at the lows to which some authors stooped, to show me how to fake customer reviews, rewrite others’ work from online, make a fortune from a “side hustle,” etc. The lack of ethics in this regard has bothered me deeply and I appreciate even more this thoughtful book by David Espindola. It is not just a history or discussion of AI, it is a dive into concepts of neuroscience, technology, philosophy, social psychology, the metaphysical, the spiritual, consciousness. Even theology.

Artificial Intelligence (humanity’s last invention?) has reached a tipping point, a profound shift in the landscape of human capabilities. Machines continue to encroach upon tasks once considered exclusively human territory. Must we make a dramatic shift? Must we find a way to harness the power of collaboration with AI?

In the book Soulful, these profound implications of AI advancement are examined, and the author gives us a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The author takes complex AI concepts and presents them in an accessible manner, showing how we can work with AI to drive productivity in such sectors as Education, Healthcare, Science, Manufacturing, and Service. Soulful also guides readers in identifying and nurturing unique human talents and skills that will be in high demand in the future job market.

But what I love about the book is the way the author delves into the essence of the human condition, exploring what sets us apart from machines. When we consider the concept of the human “soul,” we enter the arena that separates us from AI. Compassion, empathy, the vast flow of human creativity in art and music, tenderness, and emotions such as love. These are our gifts, not found in the areas of the machine.

And the discussion of consciousness… where does it begin, where does it end, what is it exactly? Am I just my brain? What about my spirit? The author dives into the possibility that consciousness is just a matter of perception, that what we think of as reality may indeed be a series of hallucinations. Oh my…. I will need to re-read this book, perhaps several times, and download some of the books the author references as well. These are concepts one thinks about from time to time, realizes he or she doesn’t have a clue, and just trundles off to make dinner.

I found it fascinating and enticing that the author believes with the advent of AI producing abundance and making our lives easier, humans “can dedicate more time and energy to the needs of the soul.” Would that it would work that way! Perhaps I am almost lost to cynicism, but in watching the behavior of humanity for 60 years, I fear humans will continue their shallow trek into materialism, hedonism, addictions, extreme highs and lows of thoughtless entertainments, and so forth.

This thought-provoking book takes us on a journey through the realms of AI and human potential, leaving readers with a deeper awareness of the changes underway, the choices and options they have, and the enduring uniqueness of the human spirit. A spirit that does inevitably reach for a higher purpose. And hopefully results in an optimistic vision of the future. The changes the author suggests seem a bit pie in the sky, but if a younger generation can hold this positive view, perhaps we can get there. I hope so.

A fascinating read.

A fascinating read.

Carrie K’s Book Reviews gives “The Ravenstone” 5 stars!

Raventsone coverCarrie K’s Book Reviews

Many thanks to Carrie Kurtz of Carrie K’s Book Reviews for her wonderful review! So glad she loved it.


Book Reviews: REVIEW EXCERPT:

“There were honestly so many interesting things in this book!  It kept me wanting to read and I found myself trying to sneak in extra times to read a chapter or two.  As a matter of fact, I “went to bed” early so that I could finish it last night!

I will certainly be recommending this book!  Not just to children or middle graders, but to anyone who enjoys reading science fiction, fantasy, action, magical type genres.”  

READ ON!Carrie K's Book Reviews