Elizabeth Hughes’ Book Periscope

Silhouette of a woman dancing with a shawl against a USA Southwest desert scene with canyons and mesa

Kathleen Popa’s To Dance in the Desert

To Dance in the Desert is a page turner. Once one starts reading, they will find it very hard to put the book down until the end. The book is about Dara and Jane. Dara moves to a remote location in the desert to work through or try to run from her emotions. Her abusive husband is dead and her father was killed. Her mother left when she was but a small child. One day she looks out the window and sees a woman dancing and twirling in the desert. The woman is Jane. Jane doesn’t know that Dara had moved into the house that had been empty for ages. They become fast friends. Jane talks Dara into going to Brittlebush to work with her in her brother Tom’s diner. Tom’s wife passed away and the diner had not been doing well since. However, with Dara’s cooking and Jane’s waitressing, the diner is once again making money. Dara sets out to find her mother and finds out she is much closer than she thought. To Dance in the Desert is funny, deep and thought-provoking. I highly recommend this book. I know you will enjoy it as much as I have. It’s so good you will want to read it much more than once. I rate this book five stars and two thumbs up.

Rita D’Orazio’s Remember Me (not yet released, cover not yet available)

WOW!! Remember Me is a suspense/romance. It is a really great story. Once the reader starts, they will absolutely not be able to put the book down. The story is about Henry and Cynthia Jones. Henry is a prosecutor who has put away many dangerous felons. One of the violent rapists he put away is out on parole. He fears for his wife and daughters due to threats the rapist made at the sentencing. Henry books a cruise for his family for his and his wife’s 40th wedding anniversary. Things don’t go exactly as planned on the cruise. There is heartache and love. When they all arrive back home. Henry’s long time trusted secretary comes across files that Henry has kept on himself and his wife Cynthia. Helen, the secretary, is shocked by the information and calls Jatara, the middle daughter. For the whole story and to find out the surprise ending, read Remember Me by Rita D’Orazio. I highly recommend this book. I rate it five stars and two thumbs up!!

Cover of Brahma's Maze. Light emerging from a tunnel, twisted flowing lava

 Brahma’s Maze is a suspense thriller that is a page turner. Once the reader begins, they will not be able to put it down. Brahma’s Maze is about Tarun, a scientist who is working on a cure for cancer. His whole family was killed by powerful mafia type thugs and he has found a way to avenge their deaths. The daughter of one of the most powerful men in India is dying from cancer. Tarun and the scientist he is working with decide that Tarun should secretly take the cancer drug to India to try it on “The Old Man’s” daughter. The daughter is cured of her cancer and “The Old Man” helps Tarun avenge the death of Tarun’s family. What happens next is a page turning, thrilling ride that will leave you wanting more! I highly recommend this book. I give it two thumbs up and a five star rating!

portraitcover

A Portrait in Time is a novel about time travel. It is intriguing, a real page turner, and will keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Nicole Bruante is a nude model in 1870’s Paris. She is with her lover and drinking absinthe laced with laudanum when a portal opens in the painting above her bed and they are transported to a museum in Paris in 2011. She arrives with bruises and short term amnesia. Her lover arrives completely crushed internally and dead. The police hear the alarms from the paintings go off and start chasing after Nicole. Nicole remembers her name and finds an office to hide in. As she looks around she finds a coat, hat and boots plus an umbrella that should disguise her well. She then finds out the office belongs to Susanne Bruante. As she looks around more she finds pictures and two envelopes with addresses on them. She finds Susanne’s apartment and meets her great, great, great granddaughter. Susanne calls her uncle Henri and together they believe what Nicole is telling them. Susanne contacts her “exboyfriend” from the United States, Dr. John Noland, who happens to be working on time travel. He flies to Paris and does some tests and finds out that Nicole has mutant genes theat opened up the portal when she was drinking the mind-altering absinthe and laudanum. Susanne has herself tested and she also has some of the mutant genes. Nicole was not crushed when she was transported to present day Paris because of the mutated genes. The four of them set out to figure out how to send Nicole back to the 1870’s. A Portrait in Time is an excellent read! The story is so good you will NOT want to put the book down. I very highly recommend this book. I rate this book two thumbs up and five stars. Happy reading!!!

alteriencover

Alterien: Once Was Lost is a sci fi short story that takes place in the year 2059. Agent John Lost and Agent Abigail work for the ISA (International Security Agency). Agent John Lost has superhuman abilities that allow him to see what will happen in the near future, among other powers. Agent Lost and Agent Abigail are assigned to preventing terrorist attacks and bringing in the terrorists for questioning. Investigator Sharon Marshall calls in Agents Lost and Abigail for questioning. Sharon Marshall is certain that Agent John Lost looks very familiar. She calls in a doctor and does a DNA test on John Lost. The results show that he is indeed her half brother who disappeared many years ago and his true name is Oberon. Alterien: Once Was Lost is a great Sci Fi short story. I highly recommend this book. I certainly can’t wait until part 2 comes out. I rate this book five stars and two thumbs up!

Short story by Robert Bates

Glory

 I’ve waited my whole life for this. It’s the state championship game and we are down by one point. I dribble past the midcourt line while the crowd is counting down the seconds.

Five! Four!”

Sweat drips in my eye but I can still see Devon open and waving for the pass. He’s supposed to take the last shot, but he doesn’t understand. This is my moment. I can already see that championship ring on my finger.

“Three! Two!”

This is it. I jab step and drive, successfully getting around the defender. With a victorious smirk on my face, I jump in the air, raise my elbow, and release at the top of my jump just like coach taught me. The ball begins its perfect arc towards the rim and I can feel the whole gym watching me in my moment of glory.

I miss.

 

Poetry from Al Preciado

 

Rising

 

Impeccable clouds peeled pale clean

Parading like aircraft-carriers filling charcoal sky

into the cracked eggshell , sink-hole of my heart,

healing, even as it wants what it wants, it beats on

Mists color faraway mountains ultramarine

These Utah mountains are the mountains of the summer

of my long trek east to Colorado

Wheeling alone across gold and camouflage hills, valleys

Plains, salt lands, up the thundering, massive Rockies

Carved brutally like an old dog’s teeth

Century-hammered islands of stone mirroring

my own solitude, my recent exile from regret and despair

This is my long voyage into the looming, beautiful emptiness

of the frustrated terrain of my pining soul

I am the perennial passenger, bearing the cargo of excruciating solitude and exquisite salvation

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Short story from Robert Bates

 

Knockout

 “Mark wants to beat your ass,” Julian had warned me at the beginning of the school day.

More like Mark is going to beat my ass. Everyone knows I can’t fight. I sit in my seat wondering what will happen next.

Julian sees my worried face and says, “Relax, I got your back.”

The teacher walks out and I can feel Mark watching me.

Rachel whispers, “It’ll be really funny if you win,” into my ear from her seat beside me.

I turn and Mark is in my face. He pushes me and I instinctively push him back.

He hits me. Then I’m on the ground. Completely disoriented.

I wait for another punch to come but it never does. I finally regain my senses and get up to see Julian holding Mark with his arms pinned behind his back.

If you are going to do something, do it now,” he says, struggling to hold him.

I hit Mark three times with my left hand then he elbows Julian and breaks free. He charges at me and before I can react his fist connects with my jaw.

I wake up with Rachel in my face.

That was pretty funny too.”

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry from Alexis Durante

1) Cracks in a Window

i’ve got bumps and bruises
scratches and scrapes
on most every inch of my skin
i’ve got a heart that cracks a bit
with every smile
because it can only take so much
but the cracks aren’t always so malicious
aren’t always seeking to destroy
the cracks
they’re a window
the tears and rips
let a little light in
when i need it most…

and think of it the least

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Madame Mars project founders speak at Oakland’s Chabot Space and Science Center

“The first person to go to Mars is probably alive today.”
Beth Rogozinski, founding member of San Francisco State University’s multimedia studies program and founder of Transmedia SF, a transmedia agency and studio, and Dr. Jan Millsapps, SFSU professor of cinema, made this bold pronouncement during their July 15th enrichment lecture at Chabot.
Both speakers discussed the history of human space travel. So far 537 people have entered outer space, and 57 of these were women. 12 people have walked on the moon, and all of these were men.
However, the design of some upcoming plans for Mars exploration has different goals than those of the Apollo moon missions. The idea will not simply be to visit the planet for the sake of scientific research or for pride in having reached the destination, but to go with long-term colonization in mind. This will necessarily require welcoming a larger and more diverse group of astronauts and mission support crew.
“Men went to the moon, but everyone will be going to Mars,” said Rogozinski.

Elsie Augustave on Dorothy Anne Spruzen’s mystery novel Not One of Us

From Elsie Augustave, author of the Haitian immigrant family saga The Roving Tree, which is available here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Roving-Tree-Elsie-Augustave/dp/1617751650/

Woman's face in profile, staring into the distance, with the title obscuring her eyes.

Dorothy Spruzen’s Not One of Us

Life will never be the same for the Salton Slaves after one of them has been murdered and another assaulted. The incident marks the beginning of a life changing experience for the socialite ladies. Not One of Us is the story of a community taken into hostage as they try to determine who is the cold-blooded murderer that kills everyone who gets on his way? The novel is also a story of dualities: Salton and New York, middle-class and low-class, loyalty and betrayal, violence and tenderness, all of which is expressed in the first and third person narration. Dorothy Spruzen has written a novel that provides insights into the mind of a murderer whose life is marked by childhood traumas and the need to be a respected person. It is entertaining and examines humanity in an engaged yet detached manner. Not One of Us is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Not-One-Us-D-Spruzen/dp/146102062X/