Oy,  I suppose I’m much more disturbed by the implication that folks lied for me than that one reader was dissatisfied enough to post the same review on Amazon, too.   Just one more thing for writers to put up with.

Hope you are having a happier end of the year wherever you are!

I haven’t finished the book yet, but I wanted to entice you with a bit of a blurb for the book and a bit of video.  Here first, the blurb:

Pungent curry. . .sweet fried onions. . .incense. . .colorful beads. . .lush fabrics. Shobhan Bantwal’s compelling new novel is set on the streets of Edison, New Jersey’s Little India, where a young businesswoman rediscovers the magic of love and family. . .

Since becoming a widow at age twenty-seven, Anjali Kapadia has devoted herself to transforming her parents’ sari shop into a chic boutique, brimming with exquisite jewelry and clothing. Now, ten years later, it stands out like a proud maharani amid Edison’s bustling Little India. But when Anjali learns the shop is on the brink of bankruptcy, she feels her world unraveling. . .

To the rescue comes Anjali’s wealthy, dictatorial Uncle Jeevan and his business partner, Rishi Shah-a mysterious Londoner, complete with British accent, cool gray eyes, and skin so fair it makes it hard to believe he’s Indian. Rishi’s cool, foreign demeanor triggers distrust in Anjali and her mother. But for Anjali, he also stirs something else, a powerful attraction she hasn’t felt in a decade. And the feeling is mutual. . .

Love disappointed Anjali once before and she’s vowed to live without it-though Rishi is slowly melting her resolve and, as the shop regains its footing, gaining her trust. But when a secret from Rishi’s past is revealed, Anjali must turn to her family and her strong cultural upbringing to guide her in finding the truth.

Here’s the book trailer:

Not for nothing, but isn’t Uncle Jeevan a dead ringer for Lazar Woolf from Fiddler on the Roof?

To find out more about Shoban and her books, check out her website.

Oops.

I hadn’t planned on disappearing. Unfortunately, my gmail account got corrupted in a way I still don’t understand and can’t access on the computer I used to use in the same way.

I have had sooo much going on that real life overtook the life of my fiction and my communication with you all. I’ve had to deal with folks getting ill, folks falling down and not getting up, myself catching the (ahem) tail end of the piggie fluj-like that afflicted us here in New York. On the flip side, I’ve also been healed of an illness I’ve been dealing with since childhood and discovered I have a calling  I hadn[t anticipated (more on that at a later date).

But I’m back hoping all of you will forgive me for not posting the results of the contest sooner (again, couldn’t access mail) but it is up now. Congrats to our winner Phyllis Lamken.  Way to go!

I’m also announcing the classes I’ll be teaching this summer and fall. First, we’ll have a little summer suspense thing. In September I’ll focus on helping you make your love scenes sizzle.

So thanks for your concern folks. You can always reach me on my contact me page.

Until next time –
Dee

So I thought I’d post something about another source of anxiety–the upcoming election. I don’t think I need to remind anyone that I’m an Obama supporter. If they don’t hold the election soon, I’m gonna bust. LOL But in the meantime here’s something fun pointed out to me by fellow author Gwynne Forster. Enjoy!

Today, or on any other day, you can use the power of eight (infinity) to clear your energy and rejuvenate yourself. Make a quiet place for yourself where you will not be disturbed. Sit upright but in a comfortable position. Breath deeply from your belly until you begin to relax. Imagine a white light glowing at your base (red) chakra (see chart below for chakra locations and colors). See that light begin to glow red. From that center imagine a ribbon of light flowing toward the front of your body, around your side and into your back. The ribbon flows around your other side, making a figure eight. Let the ribbon flow a few times, growing brighter and more intensely red each time. As you visualize this imagine that your most basic concerns (money, survival issues, fear) are released into the light and burned away. When you feel moved to, disconnect the ribbon and let the light return to the chakra.

Repeat this with the six remaining major chakras as follows:

sacral (orange)–creativity, sexuality
solar plexus (yellow)–power, ego
heart (green)–love, caring
throat (blue)–communication
brow (indigo)–imagination, visualization
crown (indigo)-spirituality, enlightenment

After you have cleared each chakra, take a few more cleansing breaths then open our eyes when you are ready.

This is a much simplified version of the Infinite Spectrum meditation created by Laurelle Shanti Gaia. Ironically, or maybe not, you are supposed to do this meditation daily for eight weeks to completely clear the chakras.

For a fun chakra test, go here.

I haven’t seen the movie, but my nephew was there for the first midnight show in our area–come to think of it, he never did call to tell me what he thought of it. As y’all know, I’m much more of a Netflix kind of gal. I watch when I can eat my own damn popcorn. LOL

But does this whole hoopla strike anyone but me as being kind of morbid? I mean doesn’t it seem like folks want to see it just because Heath Ledger is dead? I’ve been a big fan of his since the commercial bomb but personal love, A Knight’s Tale, so it’s not as if I haven’t been following her career. Still, I wonder if people would be so quick to rush out to see the movie if Ledger had lived.

But let’s focus on the positive. It doesn’t surprise me there’s Oscar buzz around his performance. I hope he gets the nomination at least. I still loved Jack Nicholson as the Joker, though. Eventually I’ll see this new one to compare.

Enter Barry Blitt’s controversial cover for the July 21 edition of the New Yorker magazine. According to a poll I saw on my local news 47% of those polled thought it was satire; 48% thought it was racist drivel. At the very best, whatever you call it, the use of the artwork was ill-advised. I’d rather not get into the worst.

In the picture, Obama is dressed in traditional African garb; Michelle is tricked out a la Angela Davis–all while a flag burns in the Oval office fireplace and Bin Ladin’s picture hangs on the wall.

Leaving aside the intention of the artist and the magazine for a moment, what I want to know is why it didn’t occur to anyone that such a cover would blow up in their faces. Was there no voice of reason to say, hey, maybe these images might be misconstrued whatever our intent?

Guess not. The New Yorker tends to thrive on controversy, annoying liberals and conservatives almost equally. But a note to the folks at the New Yorker–it ain’t satire if folks don’t find it funny. The point of satire is to expose the absurd. It’s not satire if what you appear to be exposing is character not caricature. Captioning the piece The Politics of Fear doesn’t change the fact that the cover more likely reinforced detractors views of the Obamas as being militant, Muslim extremists rather than ridiculing them.

Now that’s funny, and not in a ha ha sort of way.

To read more go here.

On a more positive note, at least it beats this–

Born a woman, became a man, gave birth to a girl and became a dad. Is that a rhyme? Guess not, but it is weird.

oh no!

Oh, not in a good way. The guy in front of me stopped at the red light. I stopped at the red light. The woman driving the minivan behind me didn’t stop. The next thing I knew I was crashing into the black sportscar in front of me.

Not the kind of threesome one wants to write about. Hope your day is going better for you.