Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – Susan Toy, John Maberry and Jack Eason

The first author with news Susan M. Toy and her book One Woman’s Island which is now in print. I can personally recommend One Woman’s Island as I enjoyed and reviewed last year.

About the book

Running away from Canada, Mariana hopes to forget a failed marriage and the death of her husband by embarking on a whole new life. She moves lock, stock, and two cats to the small Caribbean island of Bequia. But the move brings more than she could have imagined. New friends ask her to help solve a recent murder in the expat community. And then there’s the problem of her neighbours, a young woman and her children. Seemingly abandoned by family and friends, Mariana believes they need her help! By becoming involved, Mariana is carried along from wanting to simply “live with the locals” to being overwhelmed by their culture, one so vastly different to what she had left behind in Canada that she doesn’t know who among her expat friends she can turn to for advice. So she carries on regardless and discovers that Bequia isn’t exactly the tropical paradise it had promised to be.

One Woman’s Island is the second novel in the Bequia Perspectives series that picks up again a few months in time after the first novel, Island in the Clouds.

The most recent review for the book

 An interesting, unique, and satisfying read….. September 7, 2017 – Millie Mom

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to move to an exotic island and begin a whole new life? Author Susan M. Toy has brought that dream to life for the reader. Mariana, the main character in the book, is grieving for so many things. Her life in Canada had been one of loss and longing. She’s looking for a fresh start in the Caribbean island of Bequia. Once she gets there she is met with more than she bargained for. She becomes an unwilling bystander in a local murder mystery.

The expat community that she becomes a part of is not exactly the emotional balm that she hoped it would be with its strange and colorful characters who are living with secrets and emotional turmoil of their own. The local culture of the island is something of a culture shock for a woman finding her way solely on her own in a strange new place. This little island with so much natural beauty reveals itself as a character with a personality all of its own that winds itself hauntingly throughout the story. This book is moving, engrossing, and leaves you wishing for more of Susan M. Toy’s writing.

Read the reviews and buy the book:https://www.amazon.com/One-Womans-Island-Bequia-Perspectives/dp/1927950112

And Amazon UK:https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Womans-Island-Bequia-Perspectives/dp/1927950112

Also by Susan M. Toy

Read all the reviews and buy the books: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Toy/e/B008WXIJ46

Read more reviews and follow Susan on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1316805.Susan_M_Toy

Connect to Susan via her website: https://islandeditions.wordpress.com/

The next author with new reviews for one of his books is John Maberry for Waiting for Westmoreland.

About the book

Surviving poverty and the deaths of loved ones, the author remains hopeful as he exits childhood. then comes the draft that sends him to Vietnam. With innocence lost and illusions shattered, he seeks answers. College courses are intriguing but offer no solutions. Eventually, hope returns in the form of a life philosophy that comes from a chance encounter at a party. It’s all about cause and effect. Events happen not by chance but as a result of karma. Unseen connections have surprising consequences. This knowledge comes in the nick of time, as he faces his most serious situation since the perils of Vietnam, the threat of death from a prospective father-in-law. He must take responsibility for the matter, despite being unaware of the underlying reason for it, reform himself and seek only her father’s happiness.

One of the recent reviews for the book.

One man’s journey from chaos to inner peace. By The SkyWriter on November 4, 2017

Here we have a book that is much more than memoir, and more life journey told (and written) exceedingly well and with great courage. If the writer’s mandate is to ‘open a vein’, Maberry has opened that vein and allowed whatever flowed to fill this work. From his background in hardscrabble Minnesota, enduring the loss of a parent, then for all intents and purposes the loss of the other, the author describes his various efforts to carve a niche for himself. Just as his efforts appear to be paying off, he’s found a companion, started school, navigated his way through the shoals of early adulthood, when the Selective Service System came calling and he was drafted.

Change scenes to Vietnam in 1967-68, and Maberry begins again to sort out the fictions of America’s involvement in South Asia Vs the realities of war: No clear purpose for being there; chauvinistic treatment of Vietnamese people, especially the abuse of women; and a lifer sergeant who embodied everything wrong with the American military. Maberry returns from Vietnam disillusioned, cynical and without real purpose. Indeed, it’s a mistake to refer to Waiting for Westmoreland as simply a war memoir. It’s much more one man’s journey from chaos and the vicissitudes of life, to finding inner peace through Buddhism, something that surprised even the author, until he saw how the practice worked in his own life.

The book does have a tendency to be dismissive of various U.S. institutions and traditions, certain presidents, and other public servants, and often with good reason. By way of disclosure, this reader too is a Vietnam Vet, and I, too, was astonished, as Maberry asserts, that the American people reelected Richard Nixon. Looking past this judgmental assessment, and reading this book with an open mind, and an open heart, reveals a path that perhaps many veterans of America’s ill advised war in Vietnam might take.

Five stars, and I don’t do that often. Byron Edgington, author of A Vietnam Anthem. A Vietnam Anthem: What The War Gave Me

Read the reviews and buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Westmoreland-John-Maberry-ebook/dp/B00VTYJE3

And Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waiting-Westmoreland-John-Maberry-ebook/dp/B00VTYJE3U

Also by John Maberry

Read all the reviews and buy both books: https://www.amazon.com/John-Maberry/e/B002BM82FU

And on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Maberry/e/B002BM82FU

Follow John Maberry on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1210538.John_Maberry

Connect to John via his website: http://waitforwest.eaglepeakpress.com/

Another author with a new book on the shelves is Jack Eason with a new edition of Globular VanDerGraff’s Goblin Tales released at the end of October.

About Goblin Tales.

A very long time ago, there once was a land called Goblindom hidden behind a magic barrier to protect its inhabitants from mankind. Man’s ancestors the humins lived there quietly alongside wyverns, griffins, trolls, witches and wizards as well as woods, mountain and plains goblins, ravens, eagles and many more creatures. This anthology is a collection of thirty tales, which I have translated from goblin into English thanks to Globular Van der Graff, a friendly southern woods goblin who told them to me not long ago…

Two of the early reviews for the new edition

Recommended! By Chris Graham on 31 October 2017

This book has been updated and improved by the author, who, since I had already bought, read, and reviewed the previous version, kindly, let me read the new version prior to publishing.

The book still contains 30 short but immensely enjoyable stories about five Goblin brothers and their ‘Humin’ friend.

Unlike many fantasy tales involving Humans and Goblins, this book contains no gory bits, spurious violence or endless wars, nevertheless, it is very entertaining.

Be careful though, especially if you tend to read out loud to yourself, the temptation to utter the words spoken by the Goblins is overwhelming and if you are in a packed commuter train or bus, you may get funny looks from your fellow travellers.

Mind you, you may also get more space to stretch out and get comfortable as they sidle away from you….

Tales for Everyone By Bob Nailor on 1 November 2017

Goblin Tales is a delightful return to old-time fantasy story-telling. This collection of short vignettes is a wonderful tale of five goblin brothers and a lisping raven who live in an old oak tree on the edge of the Goblindom. The antics and adventures are humorous, intriguing and, at times, epic in the scale of what is happening. The relationship is intricate between the goblins and the rest of residents of the magical kingdom of Goblindom. There are other goblins, wyverns, dragons, fairies, elves, witches, sorcerers and sorceresses, and humins – a form of human. Most of the short tales are quick reads so you can enjoy a story while you sip your tea or coffee. These are stories for both the young and the young at heart, in other words, from age 8 to 88.

Head over and buy the new version of Goblin Tales: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0764GNLXT

And Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0764GNLXT

A selection of books by Jack Eason

Discover all of Jack Eason’s books and read the reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Eason/e/B003MEA7AY/

and Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Eason/e/B003MEA7AY

Follow Jack and read other reviews on Goodread: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4026249.Jack_Eason

Connect to Jack Eason via his blog: https://havewehadhelp.wordpress.com/

Thank you for dropping by today and please feel free to share the news from these authors.. Thanks Sally