Two-fer, Umm, Wednesday

“Two-fers” should be on Tuesdays, I know, but mine came today. I could have gone with “A Writer’s Winter Wednesday” but it implies two things: a status as a professional writer—which I am not, I don’t get paid for doing what I do; that “winter,” in the classic sense, had arrived in Arizona. It is cooling down, yes, but “winter”?

Really I wanted to share two quick links with you. The first is another (only my second!) review for The Apocalypse of Hagren Roose by Ms. Cheryl Malandrinos at The Book Connection. She called it “powerful, eloquently written . . .” and “a thought-provoking literary work.” Yeah, I’m still trying to absorb such words.

Speaking of words (<– I rather like that) I have another guest post at Miki's Hope.com, The Many Essences of Christmas. Do you remember those fat Christmas tree lights, not like the dinky ones today? How about all the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials? Have a quick look at my guest post to see what else you may remember!

Have a great evening, everyone, and a better tomorrow.

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Spend Our Way To Happiness?

Today Ms. Denyse Bridger has been kind enough to lend me her blog and is hosting a guest post I wrote titled Can we outspend our discontent?

Thinking we need a different approach to the Christmas ‘system’? How about, at least, considering a different mind set. Trot on over to my guest post to see what I mean!

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Me, Myself, and I

Yeah, that’s right . . . three of the most enigmatic people I know. I’m still trying to suss out bits of information from them.

Today, however, you, the reader get to have a look at an interview I did with myself. I know, it sounds a bit kooky, but it was kinda fun . . . once I knew what the questions were.

Have a look here at the blog of Broken Teepee.

Have a good weekend everyone and hopefully you’ll join me again next week for the lasst week of my tour.

J.W. Nicklaus

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Define ‘Apocalypse’ . . .

I would do it for you, right here, you know, make it nice and convenient. Thing is, I provide the definition at the end of my novella (I may have mentioned it in passing a time or two—The Apocalypse of Hagren Roose).

My guest post today over at Moonlight, Lase, and Mayhem contains a thread of relevancy due to its contextual kinship with Hagren’s story.

It’s entitled Gifts. I hope you can take a few moments to check it out.

Tomorrow will bring an interivew, and not your typical author interview either—I interviewed myself. Yeah, I know . . .

Until then, check out Gifts.

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Alina’s Letter To Santa

The Roose’s only child, Alina, received the opportunity to write a letter to Santa. She may be a big girl now and on her own but her circumstances have pressed upon her a need to revisit the smallest glowing ember in her heart, that speck of Christmas magic that seems to stay with us for life.

Alina has no children so you may wonder what she wants from the right jolly old elf. Stop by Literarily Speaking and have a quick look. And if you’re moved to do so, come back here and leave a comment for her.

And my thanks to all of you who have been ‘liking’ my posts or following my blog. Know that I am very aware of your visits and hope to get around to visiting some of you soon!

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Hagren’s Review On Day Two

When putting your words, thoughts, and ideas out for public consumption you hope people enjoy it, perhaps even reflect upon it a bit. With so much competing for our ever-shortening attention spans having someone read your work is an accomplishment in itself. 

Having achieved such a benchmark one must also accept that their thoughts of your work are equally as valuable as you feel your work is—good or bad, a review is important.

But good ones feel so much better .. . .

So it is that I am much pleased that my first review, by Sharon Chance at Sharon’s Garden of Books was positive. Have a look for yourself!

Thank you to Sharon and to all those who take a few moments to check out her thoughts.

Tomorrow, Hagren’s daughter, Alina, gets her Dear Santa letter published. Hope you check back for that!

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Two Weeks For Hagren Roose

The holiday season can be a tough time for everybody, what with all the demands of work, getherings, kids’ school stuff, and the added duty of gift shopping. It can be difficult to find time for reading a blog or two, much less write posts or spend much time online at all.

It is with that understanding in mind that I bring to you the quick 2-week jaunt of my novella, The Apocalypse of Hagren Roose, around the blogosphere. If you follow my blog or Facebook page (where I am not too likely to be found!) then checking out my tour will be easy. I will post the links to the tour pages and it shouldn’t take but a few minutes to see each stop along the way. Next thing you know we’ll be halfway to Christmas!

And Hagren’s story is certainly pertinent to the holidays, not a Christmas story by itself but the underlying message applies to the season. So join in, would you?

I have a number of guest posts which will be showing up on other blogs, there will be a couple reviews of the novella, and a couple of interviews which may prove interesting.

• Tomorrow we start off with a post I wrote for A Year of Jubilee Reviews.

• Tuesday comes my first review for The Apocalypse of Hagren Roose at Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews. Those who join me in visiting and reading Sharon’s review will be seeing it for the first time with me.

• Wednesday will bring a letter to Santa written by one of the characters in the story, Hagren’s daughter Alina. Her letter will appear at Literarily Speaking.

Please do make a few moments to check out the stops and leave a comment if you’d like. I will be checking in at each stop and interacting with those who come by.

If you’d like to see the tour schedule it’s here.

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“Magically Brought Real Love To Life”

Quite literally, a book review condensed to six words. Not my words, I assure you, but they do refer to The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between. Wow, huh?

After a few days off I’m back on the tour trail for the last leg of this journey.

The review above came from Ms. Tara Stone Gill at 25 Hour Books. One of my favorite lines from her review is:

I found myself rereading whole paragraphs to just soak in the imagery again and again.

Guess I did something right ;^)

Also today is a quick seven question interview with me at All Voices. Take a few moments to check it out, won’t you?

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Review Me This . . .

As much as I get anxious about book reviews, the fact is that good or bad they play an important role for both the writer and reader. I received the following review from Haley at The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object:

The Light, The Dark and Ember Between is a collection of short stories that show people and events the way they really are. Each story is a beautiful picture of humans and emotions.

Each story in The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between is beautifully set up and developed quickly, by way of characters, setting, and dialogue. I was instantly drawn into each one as quickly as I turned the page.

J.W. Nicklaus is a wonderful writer. His words are fluid and lyric and full of beautiful vivid descriptions, the kinds that you re-read paragraphs because the words were beautiful. His characters are real people living with real situations, fighting to live though their losses. Some stories are funny (Reydeo says “T.V. is dead!” = Radio says TV is dead), some are sweet (“momma didn’t spank me after all, and I told God thank you when I said grace”), some that dabble in the supernatural (“I beheld Satan falling as lightning from heaven.”) and some that make your heart sing (yes, I fell in love with you when you were in second grade and you never knew it.).

I enjoyed each and every one of these stories, and this book will stay on my bookshelf for years. They’re the kind that you read over and over, whichever you feel like reading that day. I look forward to more from Nicklaus, and I encourage everyone to get their hands on this book as soon as they can.

Content: there was an occasional cuss word scattered through some of the short stories, but it wasn’t overdone, overly offensive, or inappropriate.

Recommendation: Ages 10+ to lover of any genre.

I’m trying to remember what I was so worried about ;^)

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Tour II; Day 7 Review and Guest Post

Only three days left . . . not for shopping, but for my second tour. Today has two stops:

• A brand new review of The Light, The Dark, and Ember Between at Reading at the Beach. Two words come to mind: stocking stuffer.

• A guest post I wrote for Market My Novel about one of the ways I write when I’m not actually writing. Bewildered? Check out the post!

Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer, Stocking Stuffer . . . ;^)

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