Sunday 27 May 2012

Guest Jennifer Starks


Welcome, to the first guest posting as part of the Virtual Blog Tour sponsored by MasterKoda.com and organised by Tasha Turner and friends. This week, I have a treat for you. Today we have a post written by Jennifer Starks on how she got into writing. So let's have a read of what she has to say and should you feel an incline to comment then please feel free. 

Jennifer Starks says....

I am not sure how I got into writing. My mother writes poetry. She was always working on her poems and there were always crumpled old notebooks lying around our house. I can see it right now. Her perfect cursive, the smell of pencil lined pages and words crossed out in a fit of frustration.

My mother is a fine person, so the fact that the fine arts are so ingrained into her personality has never surprised me. The first memory I have of writing was on summer vacation. I believe I was eight and my mother and I had just moved in with a friend who ran an adult foster care home out of her house. The people living there were so wonderful. They each had such different personalities and it was entertaining as hell to watch them interact, but being cooped up with a bunch of old people every day could be a bit dull especially for an eight year old.

So, I took a pen, notebook and lawn chair out to the back yard and started writing a story. I don’t recall what that story was about, but I remember the main character had a thing for apples. Like so many of my stories, I don’t think I ever finished it, but that day was one of the best days of my life. I felt so free, so unencumbered sitting in the sun roaming around a world of my own making. I don’t know how long I stayed out there. Most the day, I’m sure. 

This was my very first taste of writing and while I’ve taken some breaks from it, I’ve never stopped. Not completely. Not since that day under a bright, hot sun with the smell of dirt, grass and an occasional gust of wind keeping me and my handy notebook company.


Jennifer Starks has been writing since the tender, but still wise beyond her years, age of eight. She gets giddy at the thought of visiting a book store, loves that good ole Library smell, is most at home on the couch reading or at her desk writing. She adores her children (though they make it entirely difficult to keep any kind of writing schedule) and is humbled beyond belief to have a mother who fostered her love of the arts and a husband who supports the lifestyle even when it means listening to her type at 5 AM. Messy Death will be Jennifer’s début novel. Updates on its progress can be found at www.jenniferstarks.wordpress.com

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Broken Angel - review


Author: S.W. Vaughn
Review by: Jennifer Don

When I think of what books I would normally pick up and read, this wasn’t one of them. Being honest, I didn’t read much of the description for the book before I decided it was one I needed to read. What captured my attention were the title, and the cover. I knew then, that I needed to read it and I’m so glad I did.
The book begins with Gabriel Morgan searching for his sister who had apparently disappeared and his searching led him to the underground fight scenes.  He had learned from his past searches that the people he was looking for were involved with the fights. Eventually, the one place where someone recognised the photo he had presented, represented his last day of freedom, his last day as Gabriel Morgan.
               
Slade, the very man responsible for Lilith’s disappearance, had sent out orders for Gabriel’s capture. And once handed to him, Gabriel had no option but to take up his offer of fighting for Slade in order to gain his freedom and that of his sister.
But Gabriel can’t submit that easily and must endure pain, upon pain in order to try and have him under control. But no matter what has to go through, Gabriel allowed it to happen, he would do anything for his sister.

As the book goes on, Gabriel is no longer by that name; he under much regret and anger had to go by the name of Angel. The anger it caused him that his situation caused him, he put to good use and used it to try and win his fights.
But nothing is as it seems, the further the book goes on, the more you want to read. This one is page turner from start to finish, each fight Angel had to go through, left you wondering whether he would win or not. If he loses then his sister pays, and that’s not an option for him.

I can’t say more without giving away too much detail within the book, but I will say, Broken Angel is a must read for anyone. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the rest in the series. I want to find out what happens in the next. Seriously, I loved this book from start to finish. So much so that I need to give it 5/5 stars!