On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
I like to start my day with the following prayer from Saint Teresa of Avila.
I am thrilled to share this cover and trailer with you today!
Blurb
While not usually a big deal, one overlooked email would haunt teacher Gilda Greco. Had she read it, former student Sarah McHenry might still be alive.
Suspecting foul play, Constable Leo Mulligan plays on Gilda’s guilt and persuades her to participate in a séance facilitated by one of Canada’s best-known psychics. Six former students also agree to participate. At first co-operative and willing, the camaraderie is short-lived as old grudges and rivalries emerge. The séance is a bust.
Determined to solve Sarah’s murder, Gilda launches her own investigation and uncovers shocking revelations that could put several lives—including her own—in danger. Can Gilda and the psychic solve this case before the killer strikes again?
Excerpt
Jim whistled. “You sure don’t like it easy. With all your millions, you’d think this crap could somehow miss landing on you. But you do seem to attract it.” He chuckled. “Might be something to address with a therapist or maybe the psychic you’ve just met.”
“I didn’t just meet Cassandra. I got to know her and her parents very well during those seven months I taught in Parry Sound. They’re good people.” While I was also skeptical, I did feel the urge to defend her. She had been so sincere and so open. I couldn’t fathom the notion of Cassandra faking or putting on the airs of a psychic. It wasn’t in her nature to be deceitful.
“I’m sure they are,” Jim said. “But let’s face some facts here. Most psychics need to make a living. I don’t doubt this lady has some intuitive ability—as many women do—but I don’t think it’s enough to catch a murderer. The constable is grasping at straws. What did you say his name was?”
“Leo. Leo Mulligan.”
“Tall, dark-haired guy. Good-looking and a bit of a rascal.”
“He’s evolved.” I immediately regretted my response. Knowing Jim, he would pounce and tease me.
“And you’re interested,” Jim said, chuckling. “What does your boyfriend think about this cozy reunion you’re having?”
Release Date: April 23, 2018
I’m happy to welcome civil engineer and author TG Wolff to the Power of 10 series. Today, TG and Detective Jesus De La Cruz, the protagonist of Exacting Justice, share their love of coffee.
Here’s TG!
Thank you, Joanne for hosting me Detective Jesus De La Cruz today. We’re both happy to be stopping by to share our love of coffee with your readers and a taste of our upcoming book, Exacting Justice.
For myself, I never drank coffee…until I had children. Now it’s one of my basic food groups. I don’t consider myself a coffee snob but insist that it takes good. Little coffee shops, the eclectic ones that sell jewelry, soaps, and what-not are my favorites. My drink of choice: large Americano with a splash of whole milk.
The hero of my thriller is Cleveland police homicide detective Jesus De La Cruz. Cruz worked under cover narcotics for 10 years until a bust gone bad changed his story. He came out with a new face, a new career in homicide, and the realization that he was an alcoholic. On the road to recovery, Cruz developed a taste for coffee. He is unapologetic about the gallon he drinks each day and they way he likes it dressed—light and sweet.
Top Ten Places Det. Jesus De La Cruz Likes to Drink Coffee
10. Mornings, His kitchen. After leaving the Cleveland, Ohio hospital, Cruz lived with his sister, Marianna, and her family for a year before he bought his first house. The Cape Cod was in as bad a shape as he was at the start. He tackled remodeling the kitchen first, small as it was. Now each morning, he leans against the counter his own hands installed, reading the thoughts and meditation of other recovering alcoholics, savoring the calm before the storm of each day.
9. Nighttown. Nighttown is a restaurant and music venue just up the hill in Cleveland Heights. It is the preferred Sunday evening dining choice of Cruz’s AA Sponsor Dr. Oscar Bollier. Good food, good music, good company make for a well-rounded life. One that’s even better with topped off with dessert and coffee. (nighttowncleveland.club)
8. His desk. Being a homicide detective isn’t the sexy, fast-paced life of the movies. Somedays it feels like he’s paid to drudge through the worst side of human existence one inch at a time. It sickens him what people can do to another person and he gets really tired of the lies and excuses. A coffee mug sits on his desk with his nieces’ laughing faces shining out. Filled with sixteen ounces of light and sweet, it’s the perfect counterweight to reality.
7. Lagoon at the Cleveland Museum of Art Museum. CMA is remarkable at every turn, and doubly so because admission is free. When Cruz was healing from his injuries, he would bring his two nieces here to enjoy a few rooms, a tasty treat, and a romp around the park-like lagoon. He found solace here, the beast among the beauty. Now recovered, he still likes to sneak away, with his favorite cuppa, and become part of something grander.
Credit: http://www.clevelandart.org
6. Cleveland’s West Side Market. Once upon a time, Cleveland was a community of immigrants. That heritage is deliciously alive at the West Side Market. Stall after stall presents shoppers with fresh produce, delicious bakery, ethnic specialties, and the real treat—community. With seeing so much of Cleveland’s underside, Cruz likes to buy a cuppa here and be reminded why he got into copping in the first place.
Credit: westsidemarket.org
5. AA Meeting. The coffee is bad, the chairs uncomfortable but this church meeting room is where Cruz can be found every Monday night. Beating addiction isn’t something you do once but over and over again. Then, if you’re lucky, you look back one day and realize you’ve done it for a year. Then two. A round of applause to everyone who has the courage to knock addiction back, whether it’s alcohol, narcotics, food or others.
4. His car. There are times when the rhythm and noise of Cleveland police are the pulse of the job. There are other times when Cruz considers committing a homicide to get a little piece and quiet. Those are the times he fills his go-cup and takes it to his office away from the office, his car.
3. Presti’s Bakery, Cleveland’s Little Italy. Some places stay the same no matter how much they change. Here, the coffee can be made as strong as in the old country, served with sweet treats to satisfy the kid in all of us. Looking out over Mayfield Road as it climbs into the Heights, Presti’s has the comforts of home…without your mother telling you to clear the dishes.
Credit: TG Wolff
2. Lake Erie shore. Cleveland sits on one great lake. Erie. Standing on her shores, looking out to the horizon, everything seems possible. Sometimes after a long day, Cruz will park on the East 9th Street Pier and walk down to the edge. There is always a wind. There is always something new to discover.
Credit: Jeff Futo
The number one place Cruz likes to drink his coffee is…
His sister’s house. In Mariana Moreno’s home, laughter, chatter and noise are the soundtrack of life. When Cruz felt like he belonged nowhere, fit in nowhere, including his own life, there was a place for him here. It is one thing when people can relate to your situation and invite you in. It’s a whole other level when they can’t possibly understand and still refuse to let you leave. In his sister’s house, Cruz learned the lessons of love.
Blurb
An unknown killer is waging a war on drugs. The murders are horrendous but with a silver lining—now stop signs are the only objects lingering on corners in the city’s toughest neighborhoods. Half the city calls for the police to end the killer’s reign. The other half cheers the killer on, denouncing the tactics but celebrating the progress police haven’t been able to achieve.
The gritty details of Cleveland’s drug underworld are nothing new to Homicide Detective Jesus De La Cruz. Two years earlier, Cruz worked undercover narcotics and was poised for a promotion that would have placed him in a coveted position within the drug organization. The deal went bad. Now he has a new face, a new job, and a new case.
The killer moves through the streets with impunity, identity still unknown. Demands for progress from his superiors, accumulated grief of the victim’s relatives, growing pressure from the public, and elevated stress from his family quietly pull Cruz apart. With no out, the detective moves all in, putting his own head on the line to bait a killer.
Excerpt
Monday, November 6
Dressed for the day, Cruz leaned against the kitchen counter he’d installed himself, sipping coffee and reading the daily meditation. Weak sunlight poked through the blinds, striping the page until it was unreadable. He set the book aside. A moment later, his phone rang.
His day started with a caravan of city-issued cars parked on the northbound shoulder of I-71. The knot of concrete ribbons was the nexus of I-71, I-480, and the spurs to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Going through at sixty-five miles an hour, he had read the “Cleveland Corp Limit” sign hundreds of times but never noticed this triangle patch. The sign rose up behind the concrete barricade and between its legs was a post. The post wasn’t interesting. It was what was on it.
“Just a head?” Cruz shouted to be heard over the white noise of traffic above, below and next to him. He swung a leg over the barricade and carefully lowered his weight to the ground. The land dropped sharply down to I-480. This wasn’t a place made for walking.
“So far, Detective.” One of the patrolmen on the scene, a big man named Buettner, answered him. Three others fought the wind to secure a tent screening the crime scene from the morning commute. “Had nearly a half dozen accidents with people looking at this.”
“It would get my attention, even without coffee.” Because he was watching his footing, he began with the ground. The post was one of the thousands sold for myriad household uses. Heavy enough gauge to be able to take some weight, small enough to be portable. The ground wasn’t frozen, but it would take a mallet to drive it in deep enough to support a head. Crime scene would dust for prints. Overgrown scrub around the post was matted down but showed no footprints of the person who had stood here and planted the nightmare.
His latest customer died hard. The head was battered, scraped as though it had been bounced off pavement a few times. Something was familiar…
“Shit. Why wasn’t I told his ID?”
“We don’t have it yet, Detective. Can’t take prints,” Buettner said.
Cruz paced away. This wasn’t coincidence or serendipity or even cosmic justice. This was just messed up.
Buy Links
Bio
TG Wolff writes thrillers and mysteries that play within the gray area between good and bad, right and wrong. Cause and effect drive the stories, drawing from over 20 years’ experience in Civil Engineering, where “cause” is more often a symptom of a bigger, more challenging problem. Diverse characters mirror the complexities of real life and real people, balanced with a healthy dose of entertainment. TG Wolff holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.
Where to find TG Wolff…
Website | Blog | Amazon | Twitter | LinkedIn
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
I enjoy reading Zen stories, especially when I feel overwhelmed with too many tasks and deadlines. Here’s one of my favorites:
A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, “I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it.”
The teacher’s reply was casual, “Ten years.”
Impatiently, the student answered, “But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice everyday, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?”
The teacher thought for a moment. “20 years.”
Source: 10 Short Zen Stories
Today, I’m participating in an anniversary party for The Romance Reviews. Along with three other authors, I’m offering a prize to one lucky winner. Scroll down here and look for my question:
What is the name of the Greek restaurant in this novel? (Note: You will get a clue)
Answer correctly and you could win an e-book of Too Many Women in the Room.
This past winter has been has been a challenging one with record-breaking low temperatures and snowfalls, unrelenting winds and Nor’Easters, floods and cancellations. Today marks a new beginning, a season of rebirth, reinvention, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, and regrowth.
Here are ten of my favorite “spring” quotes:
Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. Hal Borland
Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. Virgil A. Kraft
You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.
Pablo Neruda
Every spring is the only spring — a perpetual astonishment. Ellis Peters
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Spring is the time of plans and projects. Leo Tolstoy
It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! Mark Twain
Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’ Robin Williams
The spring wakes us, nurtures us and revitalizes us. How often does your spring come? If you are a prisoner of the calendar, it comes once a year. If you are creating authentic power, it comes frequently, or very frequently. Gary Zukav
Do you have a favorite “spring” quote?
Welcome to my Second Acts Series!
Today, we have Soul Mate author Madelaine Grant sharing her artistic and literary passions and new release, A Total Mismatch.
Here’s Madelaine!
I wrote my first story at age ten. The story was originally accepted by my elementary school magazine. Ecstatic with joy, I told everyone I was being published. However, fate intervened and my teacher told me, sorrowfully, that they had decided not to publish my story since an older student had written something similar. I guess they figured I’d have time to write more stories and be published later on. Taking this rejection really hard I decided then and there I wasn’t going to be a writer after all.
When my art teacher complimented me on my pastel drawings in sixth grade and told me I used colors well and could become an artist, I was delighted. That’s the direction I chose and followed for the next several decades. First I concentrated on commercial art, since I did have to make a living. Later on I began teaching art to children at a nearby museum. That led to more teaching jobs and finally to becoming Assistant Director of Art at that same museum.
But the writing bug would not totally disappear. I tried writing and illustrating a children’s story which almost got published. The company went bankrupt however. I finally joined RWA and my local chapter Tampa Area Romance Authors. After writing several romance novels which never made it I began writing short stories for True Confessions and True Story magazines. I had met one of the editors through TARA and, with her help, was finally able to see my work published. Emboldened by that first success I wrote several novellas which were published by Extasy Books. And now my first full- length novel, a romantic comedy titled “A Total Mismatch” by Madelaine Grant (pen name) has been published as an e book by Soul Mate Publishing. It will go into print in March and is available on Amazon and other distributors for pre order. Here’s a quick summary of the book:
Romantic comedy “A Total Mismatch” takes polar opposites Samantha Peabody and Jordan Hart on a wild courtship ride from lavish weddings and fine art to belly dancing and barroom brawls. This rollicking journey includes the best flavors of ice cream in New York City and a touch of tai chi. To read the first chapter of the book you can visit my web site http://www.madelainegrant.com.
I haven’t given up art. I still paint and exhibit my work. The combination of writing and art seems to be the best of both worlds. I love both and hope to write more books and paint more pictures for years to come.
Blurb
Fate brings polar opposites Samantha (Sam) Peabody and Jordan Hart together. Free spirit Sam is an artist, occasional belly dancer, and sloppy housekeeper while Jordan is a lawyer, fitness and neatness freak, and lover of ice cream.
The one thing they have in common is their dislike of big, fussy weddings.
After a fight with her oldest sister, Andrea, Sam decides not to attend Andrea’s lavish wedding. When Jordan is invited to a wedding, he asks Sam to accompany him, not knowing it’s Sam’s sister’s affair. Complicating Sam’s busy life is an offer from a local craft beer company to belly dance for a TV ad and become the symbol of their new beer company.
Sam’s disastrous first marriage and the difficult dynamics in her family make her insecure about a new relationship. Besides, she hates the idea of marriage. Can Jordan’s persistence win Sam over and dissolve her fears?
Where to find Madelaine…
Website | Blog | Facebook | Amazon
Joanne here!
Madelaine, I’m impressed by your creative talents. Best of luck with A Total Mismatch. It sounds delightful!
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
___________________________________________________________
May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!
___________________________________________________________
May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been
the foresight to know where you’re going
and the insight to know when you’re going too far.
___________________________________________________________
May God grant you always…
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.
___________________________________________________________
May your troubles be less,
And your blessing be more.
And nothing but happiness,
Come through your door.
___________________________________________________________
May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun.
And find your shoulder to light on.
To bring you luck, happiness and riches.
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
___________________________________________________________
HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
Master storyteller and director Guillermo del Toro has created an adult fairy tale set against the backdrop of the Cold War era. In a high-security government laboratory, the lives of two janitors, brilliantly played by Sally Hawkins (Elisa) and Octavia Spencer (Zelda), intersect with the lives of a nasty military officer (Michael Shannon) and a sympathetic researcher (Michael Stuhlbarg).
Point of intersection: a secret classified experiment that has captured the interest of the Americans and the Russians.
An amphibious creature—often referred to as the “asset”—is shackled and tested while its future is being debated. The scientists consider the asset to be a biological miracle that could be used to help future astronauts. The military is considering the asset as a potential weapon against the Russians while the Russians are plotting their own takeover of the asset.
Elisa tries to keep her head down as she cleans around the asset’s tank, but she can’t resist taking a peek. There is an instant connection as soon as her eyes connect with the blue orbs of the amphibian (Doug Jones). An inter-species romance develops as Elisa secretly shares boiled eggs and music during her lunch breaks. The two outsiders—a mute woman and an amphibian—form a silent bond.
Emboldened by her love, Elisa decides to liberate the creature. What follows is an unlikely but fascinating tale of escape and the repercussions for all involved.
So much to like here—Sally Hawkins’ ability to express herself without uttering a word, strong performances by all supporting actors, breathtaking underwater visions, expert narration by Richard Jenkins (who also stars as Elisa’s eccentric neighbor), unexpected plot twists, and Guillermo del Toro’s extraordinary vision of a magical world brought to life.
The most-nominated film at this year’s Oscars, The Shape of Water won in four categories: Production Design, Original Score, Director, and Best Picture.
A visionary and one of the most influential scientists in history, Stephen Hawking died early this morning. He was also an astronomer, cosmologist, mathematician, and author of numerous articles and books, among them A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 10 million copies.
His theories have changed how we understand black holes and relativity. But it was how he communicated science in spite of a debilitating disease that impressed and inspired all of us. Diagnosed with Amyotrphic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) shortly after his 21st birthday in 1963, Stephen Hawking defied all the odds and persevered for fifty-five years, well beyond the original prediction of two years.
PRINCETON, NJ – OCTOBER 10: Cosmologist Stephen Hawking on October 10, 1979 in Princeton, New Jersey. (Photo by Santi Visalli/Getty Images)
My favorite quotations from Stephen Hawking…
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.
People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.
We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.
Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.
However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.
Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.
Joanne Guidoccio 