Sweet Dreams At The Goodnight Motel
is women’s fiction at it’s finest as the book explores Claire, who hits middle age and finally grows into herself. As Claire enters her forties she finds she’s not passionate about anything. She would like to be, but is stuck in placid contentment, instead. Two years after her divorce, she still has fantasies of making her old relationship work, but the sparks just won’t fly. Her job is same ole’, same ole’. Ex-wife and legal secretary sums up her whole existence. Her life is nothing bad, nothing good, just plain nothing.
Then, out of the blue, a phrase about looking for life that she reads on a truck stop’s bathroom wall worms it’s way into her psyche. Claire decides to look for her life where her life began, a little town in Oklahoma. She stops living for everyone else’s dreams and starts learning to dream her own dreams.

What makes this book stand out among all the other ‘woman finding herself’ books is the author’s skill.  You don’t just read Ms. Matlock’s writing, you live it.   Being a writer, I make a point to take special note of how another writer crafts their stories.  Reading this book, I forgot all about the craft and got lost in the story.   Going back to look, I found Ms. Matlock’s skill and technique to be a creation of great depth and beauty, so strong the story keeps me reading way past my bedtime, but so artful, it takes me to depths of Story that a less skillful writer can take me–without me even realizing it!

Sweet Dreams at the Goodnight Motel is one of several books written in Valentine, Oklahoma.  You don’t have to read the earlier works to feel a part of this book.  No boring backstory here!

I am ordering her latest June 2010 book as we speak.  I’m hopeful that Little Town, Great Big Life
will reward me as much as Sweet Dreams At The Goodnight Motel
has.

(The links go to Amazon.com if you want to read an excerpt of the stories.)

Darkship Thieves combines the best of space opera with the strongest of love stories to become a book that kept me reading from start to finish, sans break.  And with my overhyper schedule right now, it takes a lot to hold my skittering attention.   Kudos for a great book, Sarah!

In a futuristic world, a young woman escapes from her father’s spaceship during a mutiny.  She takes a lifepod and travels into a tangle of energy production networks where she is rescued by a very dashing man from another planet who sees no other option but to take her back to his home.  Yes, it’s a cool and adventurous plot with lots of swash and buckle, but what makes this futuristic romance stand out above the others is the world building.  From the smallest of details to the largest of cultural philosophies, this book is air tight.  (Yes, air tight–I hear all you space opera junkies snicker about the perils of vacuum leaks in space.)

Oh, I have a thing about covers and it extends to this book.  The cover looks retro, 1950-ish maybe?  And doesn’t look anything like the book.  So, don’t judge this book by it’s cover, unless you’re totally into retro bookcover art.

If  you are fans of Patricia Brigss or Ann Aguirre, you are sure to love Darkship Theives by Sarah A. Hoyt.

All thumbs up!

This link will take you to this book on Amazon.com–DarkShip Thieves–so you can get your own copy.

Yes, I’m glad I did.  I chose What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss because of the back cover blurb which promised a bad boy rock star.  And it delivered.   The story was deep and well-told.   No Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes are Mr. Color-Me-Perfect, but fully rounded characters with deep-seated pasts.

I checked all the cover blurbs this month’s selection and saw the typical cowboys, surprise babies and boss/secretary stories.  While I enjoy a good pair of jeans on a rodeo butt as well as the next gal, I’m not big into reading about kids, especially secret babies–just why are they kept secret?–and falling in love because the snow is too deep to leave is a hard story to pull off, IMO.  So I was thrilled to find this story that kept me up late to finish it.  (Don’t let the cover throw you.  It reads better than it looks.)

In the story, an American rock star leaves the limelight and returns to the home of his birth, New Zealand, to find a more normal life.  When he enrolls in the local university and discovers more than books in the library.  –Okay, that’s all the teaser you’re getting.  Go read the book.

I will be looking for more out-of-the-ordinary stories next month.

BTW, I downloaded it to my Kindle and got a nice little price break, too.  Here’s a link What the Librarian Did (Harlequin Superromance)
for both the Kindle download and the paperback version of What the Librarian Did.

The Gift of Dyslexia click the cover to go to amazon.com

For my right-handed spouse, my mouse is a great source of frustration-especially when I move it to the right side. But my arm gets tired. And my mind doesn’t seem to mind the switch. To me the buttons aren’t on the left or the right, they’re on the inside or the outside.
If this doesn’t make any sense to you, but it does to someone you know, then let me tell you about this great book I found while researching my latest novel.

The Gift of Dyslexia has been on my bookshelf for ages. I picked it up from a bargain bin years ago. I was searching for the right words when I finally opened it. One of my characters has dyslexia. You’d think I could have used real-life examples, but that’s the thing about dyslexia. It’s different for everyone. And here’s the real kicker–on different days, at different times, it’s different for the person who is dyslexic.

Understanding what I just said is not has hard as it first appears. Read the book.
Everything about the way my thoughts track and my mind spins is described so very accurately in Ron Davis’ 250 pages. I can’t vouch for his theories on why dyslexia happens. Nor can I confirm or deny his training methods, but he’s got the processes inside my head exactly right.

If you are a spouse, a parent or a teacher to anyone who you think may be dyslexic, please, please, please read this book! You’ll make your life easier as well as their lives.

BTW, you can pick up a used copy from Amazon for as little as a couple of dollars if they have used ones for sale. The title above is a link. Well worth the investment!

Ms. O’Neal’s writing is always so poetic and lyrical.  Above and beyond her beautiful phrasing, was the wonderfully detailed cast of characters.

The setting is such a fabulously woven part of the story, not just a backdrop for a great plot, but part of both the plot and the character development.  And what an unpredictable plot it was!

GREAT JOB, Ms. O’Neal.   When’s your next one coming out?