Everblossom: A Short Story and Poetry Anthology by Larissa Hinton

Everblossom: A Short Story and Poem Anthology by Larissa Hinton is a captivating series of literary works that take you through the life cycle of the flower of life. The collection is separated into three parts of the cycle: Seed, Bud and Blossom. It also shows the progression and fine-tuning of Hinton’s writing craft.

Seed shares Hinton’s early poetry and short stories. The first poem, Seed to Seed to Seed, is a poem that shows how the rest of the collection proceeds. It is a poem that describes how the cycle of the flower is the cycle of life and, essentially, the cycle of her anthology.

In the Beginning, There were Fairy Tales is a playful short story where one man’s imagination is the limit. It is a short story that illustrates an early beginning of Hinton’s creativity and writing ability and toward the end of the story, the knowledge of a reality and the acceptance of an end. This short story has also paved the way for Hinton’s unreleased work titled, Iwishacana.

Bud, the second part of the literary piece, is the rising star in the collection. In Bud the reader’s view is transformed into the growth and development stages of life. The short story Crash and Burn relives the coming of age changing view of the opposite sex, where a life-long friend becomes a romantic interest and a mess of confusion of emotions. Hinton cleverly wraps up the intrigue of attraction in Sideways Glance and delivers the wonders and playfulness in flirtatious tactics. Forget is the beginning of the times we all miss our youth and the easiness and blissfulness that was ignorance. Forget reminds us of when that first pain of loss hit our hearts. Hinton turns the revelation into something more interesting by adding a paranormal component. The next few works are paranormal in nature and is especially tantalizing when short story Family Reunion gives an age-old tradition a sinister zombie twist.

Lastly there is Blossom, the third and final part. In Blossom Hinton uses poems like Bills, Bills, Bills and English Major Dues to show the stresses and responsibilities of adulthood. Using short stories such as Transcend, Hinton captures death and bottles it with a paranormal stopper. This is the ending of the life cycle and the writing represented shows how Hinton’s writing abilities have progressed.

The entire work has a continuation poetry titled Words Speak Volumes, which are weaved decisively in and out of the collection, like vines up white lattice. Hinton’s WSVs are perhaps the most valuable poems in the series. Hinton strings together single words and short phrases to piece together large murals of childhood, adulthood and aging in a fun and wonderful perspective.

Everblossom: A Short Story and Poem Anthology by Larissa Hinton can be purchased in paper back for $6.99 and in ebook format for $0.99 at http://www.amazon.com/Everblossom-Short-Poetry-Anthology-ebook/dp/B005H5GKIY?&linkCode=wey&tag=ther034-20

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is about an aging Anthony Webster discovering the truth of the suicide of a friend from many years ago.

Upon the death of an old girlfriend's mother, Tony receives a mysterious willed gift of 500 pounds and some documents. The documents, one being a diary, belonged to his friend, who had taken his own life.

How had his ex-girlfriend's mother ended up with the diary? Why had she willed him money? And why was his ex-girlfriend keeping the diary, even after being solicited by his lawyers? Finally she agrees to meet with Tony. Hoping for clarity, Tony only gets more and more confused.

He can only hope that by meeting more with the bitter old girlfriend, that things will start to make sense. But he never expects to find what she will lead him to discover.

You can purchase The Sense of an Ending here: http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Ending-Borzoi-Books/dp/0307957128/ref=as_li_tf_mfw?&linkCode=wey&tag=ther034-20

Before the Moon Rise by Dawn Gray

The cure for the darkness and death of a vampire is the light. Vampires feeding off of the one who holds the light are able to feel their heart beat again, their skin no longer turns to ash in the day, their stench of death retreats, and their coldness melts to warmth.

The light, protected and flowing in the blood of the unknowing Lily Reynolds, awakens the attraction of the vampires when Lily decides to vacation in New Orleans with her friend Kylie. Meeting up with a friendly historian and a strange, mysterious, very attractive man, they find themselves hunted by the local blood-thirsty beings.

Secrets reveal themselves about their new friends and about the history of the DeLaCrouix family line. Is history to repeat itself? Or will the addition of the strange new man keep the vampires from the blood they seek to steal?

Find Before the Moon Rise by Dawn Gray at http://www.publishamerica.net/product43219.html

S.P.I.R.I.T: Fire Storm by Dawn Gray

A small Vermont town with a portal to an identical town a thousand miles away causes some spiritual paranormal activities for the fiery Samantha Ricketts.

A close-to-death experience links her to her true love, Zander Smith. Connected to each other by the portal, the two must figure out how they came to be where they are and why they're there.

Zander is part of a squad of special army agents assigned to the demons that steal souls. A squad referred to as the S.P.I.R.I.T. men.

Equipped with the power of fire and electricity, and the unique abilities to see and hear the demons that steal souls, the couple need to piece together the puzzle of Sam's past and connect the dots to their instant attraction and supernatural connection.

As they delve into the mystery, the demons get stronger and the nights get heated. Now they must help a lost soul find his way to his fiance's soul in the afterlife, battling one nasty demon for possession over him. But there's more to this than meets the eye. Guess who the lost lover soul is?

Find out by reading SPIRIT: Fire Storm by Dawn Gray. You can find it only in ebook format at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93266 Use promotional code JW95Z for a discount! Offer valid through November 16, 2011.

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

It was supposed to be a challenge, though when it began when they were only five and six years old they didn't know the depth or the magnitude. In fact, they knew nothing of the game except that the game existed and their weapons were their ways with magic. Real magic, not smoke and mirrors.

Two magicians set against each other, binded together by ancient charms and enchantments combined into two rings. Each received their ring from their opponent's teacher. Each living their lives preparing for a game that neither knew anything about.

The venue? A circus. Each action affecting each and every performer and show in the circus, sometimes in a deadly fashion. And then they meet, and true to Isobel's tarot cards, they have fallen for each other. The older they get the more they see how their magic affects the circus itself, how it affects them. And soon they learn how the game finally ends. One must die.

How can the circus uphold itself if one of the true magicians are gone when all along it has been a combination of the two that allowed the circus to operate in the first place? Who will be the one to fall? Who will be the victor? The beautiful Celia Bowen, Master Illusionist, or the slight and quaint accountant with a learned disciplined ability, Mr. Marco Alisdair? And who gets trampled along the way?

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is an intriguing and mysterious read. Find it at your local bookstore and national bookstores around the States.

To our Authors around the world:
"When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift." ~ The Man in the Grey Suit, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern.

David Sedaris comes to Burlington, Vt.

David Sedaris has made his way to the little nook in the Northeast Kingdom known as Burlington, Vt. Sedaris is a humorist with bestselling titles such as Me Talk Pretty One Day, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and Naked. (Find my review of Naked here: http://thereadingcan.blogspot.com/2010/08/naked-by-david-sedaris.html)

Catch him for one night only at the Flynn Center for the Arts on October 16, 2011. Tickets cost $60.00. Can we say Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Just kidding, David, know I love you.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Poplar, black...courage. Poplar, white...time. Mistletoe...I surmount all obstacles. Hazel...reconciliation. These are the flowers that define Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers.

Throughout her life Victoria has been in and out of foster and group homes. At the age of nine she finally finds herself in a home she can handle. It is the home of Elizabeth, a single woman who owns a successful vineyard. Because Elizabeth grew up in a troubled home, she understands Victoria in a way no one else ever has. Victoria, reluctant at first, finds herself softening up to Elizabeth, life on the vineyard, and the beautiful language of flowers Elizabeth has taught her. Each flower, each plant, has a single meaning.

Elizabeth's past haunts her and her decision to reconcile with her sister has Victoria in a tift. In an attempt to keep Elizabeth to herself, Victoria commits an act that causes her to lose everything.

Back in the state's custody, Victoria is deemed unadoptable and stays in group homes until her emancipation at age eighteen. After a brief stay in a halfway home and the failure of finding (or rather looking) for a job, she is evicted. Homeless and surprisingly content, she is able to impress a local florist enough to get weekend work. On her first day of work the shopkeepr, Renata, takes her to the Floral Market to purchase the flowers needed for the day. At a booth Victoria meets an unshakeable character who, over time, she realizes knows the same language she knows.

Now Victoria finds herself communicating with this strange person by flowers and plants. Soon she finds their pasts intertwine in an unexpected way. And now all the things of her past with Elizabeth will return, along with a new big "bump", and all the Hazel (reconciliation) in the world is needed.

The Language of Flowers can be found in all major bookstores and online as an ebook. It comes with Victoria's Floral Dictionary.