An Absent Mind

An Absent Mind is a riveting new novel from Eric Rill, author of Pinnacle of Deceit and The Innocent Traitor, is about a race against time.    The ticking time bomb is Saul Reimer's sanity.  His Alheimer's is going to be the catalyst that will either bring his family together or tear it apart.

My review of An Absent Mind:

Alzheimer's is a difficult journey for any individual or family to take and there is no opt out.  In An Absent Mind, Eric Rill takes on a family's journey as their patriarch is diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  The story is told in a unique fashion, first person that swings from one family member to another, including occasionally, Saul's doctor.  I liked the easy back and forth of switching from one person's story to another.

As Saul's Alzheimer's progresses, his point of views becomes shorter and shorter until they are only one garbled sentence.  And as the story evolves, we see the effect Saul's condition has on each member of the family, how they cope and grow or how they don't cope.  Nothing is a given, nothing is for sure, as this family struggles to survive.

Rill tells a story that captures you and keeps you turning pages to the end--it is a journey through Alzheimer's and while it can't be called everyone's journey, it opens the door on the effect, both good and bad, that  the disease can have on a family and on the patient.  And despite all the pain and the inevitable end, this story has heart and gets to the pulse of what family is all about.

I gave it five stars.

An excerpt from An Absent Mind:

SAUL:  MY LAST PLACE ON EARTH

It's all unraveling.

Last night, I found myself somewhere on Monkland Avenue.  I had no idea how I got there.  I looked in a store window and saw my reflection.  It took me a bit to figure it all out --like that the person in the window was a man, and that the man was me.

I didn't know what to do.  I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist and everything--well, not everything, but the gist of it all came back to me.  I am Saul Reimer, formerly a healthy, intelligent man, married to the same woman for many years, and the father of two children he loves more than anything in the world.

The key word is formerly, as I am sure you have already figured out.  Because today--and I have no idea what day it is, other than it is really cold and I wish I had a jacket on--I am nothing, not a real man, that's for sure.  I mean, how can you be a real man when you don't even know where you are half the time, and when you do know, more often than not, you can't grasp the concept of your surroundings?

I felt in my pocket for my wallet, but it wasn't there.  All I had was my bank card.  I spotted an ATM machine at the corner.  But when I got there, I couldn't figure out how to work it.  A woman walked up from behind.  I gestured for her to go in front of me.  She smiled and said that she was in no rush.  I looked at the machine with all the words flashing across the screen.  My hands were getting slimy, and beads of that wet stuff covered my forehead.  Why couldn't she just go first?  Then suddenly, it all made sense.  I followed the directions, but it took a few tries to get the card into the machine with the strip the right way.  I looked behind me again.  The woman was fidgeting with her purse strap.  Then the machine asked me for a personal identification number.  The bad news is, I had no idea what it was.  My brain is like a short-wave radio, mostly static that occasionally finds the station, but even then the sound isn't always clear.

In a way, it will be a blessing, when my mind is totally gone, when I am a vegetable, slouched in a wheelchair.  Like many Alzheimer's patients on Montreal's West Side, I'll probably make a pit stop at Manoir Laurier.  Then when Manoir Laurier can't cope with me, or we can't afford it anymore, they'll ship me off to Belfrage Hospital, my final stop on this beloved earth.  I'll be there incontinent, drooling, and incoherent--that is, if I can even manage to get a word through my blistered lips.  And when it's all over--when my heart finally gives out, or I contract pneumonia and my family says, "Let Saul go; he deserves some peace"--when that happens, they'll take me down to the autopsy room, cut my skull open and find the tangles and plaques on my brain.  Then they will be able to say with 100 percent certainty that Saul Reimer had Alzheimer's.


BIO:
Eric Rill was born in Montreal and graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts and from UCLA with an MBA.  He held several executive positions in the hospitality industry, including president of a global hotel group.  His hobbies include trekking, scuba diving, and coll  Recting antique carpets.   Eric has two sons and divides his time between his residence in Panama and international travel.  You can reach him at his website:  www.ericrill.com

Absent Mind can be purchased at:
Barnes&Noble
Amazon


On randomly drawn commenter will win a $50 gift certificate from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  So enter a comment and follow along on the remainder of the tour and log in to the   rafflecopter draw.

Follow the rest of the tour here.


Good luck!

How to Get Good Reviews On Amazon

Today I'm one of many blogs hosting a tour for a book whose title intrigued me right away:

How to Get Good Reviews On Amazon

Now what author can't buy into that?  So, intrigued?  Well, I turn the rest of this post over to the man who wrote the book Theo Rogers. 

Who is Theo Rogers and why did he write How To Get Good Reviews On Amazon?

Theo Rogers combines years of coalface experience on Amazon's website with formal training and qualifications in a range of business and social science disciplines.  He's spent literally thousands of hours talking with Amazon reviewers, getting inside their heads, and learning what makes them tick.  He's spent almost as many hours observing the carnage that so often takes place on Amazon's forums.  In the process, he's developed a deep insider's knowledge of the reviewing subculture that's grown up on Amazon's website.

He's also seen a lot of authors and other would-be sellers make the same mistakes in their dealings with that subculture - over and over again.

As a result of his experiences, Theo has come to believe that yes, there is a simple formula that works, a way of dealing with reviewers that's honest, powerful, and extremely effective at winning reviewers over, getting them on your side, and making them actually want to help you.

Contact Theo Rogers on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/TheTheoRogers

Blurb from How To Get Good Reviews On Amazon:
How To Get Good Reviews On Amazon is a simple, no-nonsense guide that teaches exactly what it says it does.  Based on both psychological science and thousands of hours of conversation with some of Amazon's top reviewers, it takes you behind the scenes into the reviewing subculture that has grown up on Amazon's website.  It gives you a deep, insider's knowledge of how the top reviewers think and operate.  It not only shows you what to do: it takes you inside the reviewers' heads so that you can see for yourself both how these techniques work and why they're so effective.

Lessons include:

• A simple, four-part formula for writing emails that gets your work reviewed.
• Three things never to say when communicating with reviewers!
• How to pick reviewers who are more likely to give you a good review.
• How to reduce the chance that a reviewer you contact will post a bad review--even if it turns out they don't like your work!
• How people get caught out when receiving reviews from friends and family.

This book teaches an honest, straightforward approach that works.  It works because it's not based on gimmicks or tricks but on a real understanding of how Amazon reviewers operate: most of all on what they expect from authors and other sellers.  If you want to know how to talk to Amazon reviewers in a way that will make them respect you as a professional and see you as the kind of seller the actually want to help, this is the book for you.

Excerpt from Getting Amazing Reviews on Amazon:

Sellers do quite often turn up on forums on Amazon, specifically asking for reviews.  Unfortunately, a while ago Amazon changed its policies to expressly forbid this sort of behavior in all forums but one:  The Meet Our Authors forum.  The trouble with this is that the Meet Our Authors forum is very largely just a bunch of authors spamming each other.  Very few seem to have any real interest in what

others are saying.

Despite Amazon's rule against using its forums for self promotion, people still do it.  And in practice the reception that authors and other sellers get when they post on any of the multitude of forums does vary.  To some degree it depends on how the author or seller handles themselves.

The other thing you should always be extremely careful about is paying close attention to the codes of behavior considered appropriate among the forum regulars.  Different forums have different levels of tolerance for authors or other sellers seeking reviews, or otherwise promoting themselves.  For example, the Romance forum has a reputation as a place you should absolutely never leave this kind of post - unless you actually want to be ripped to shreds.  Indeed, the Romance forum has developed a reputation as an extremely hostile place for authors in general.  So it is important to do your homework on the specific forum you're considering using. 

The author will be giving away a $100 Amazon gift certificate as part of this tour.  Not only that but you have more than one chance to enter.  Tour through as many blogs as you can today and enter at as many as you can.  Every blog entry ups your chance of winning. 

The list of participating blogs can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/06/super-book-blast-how-to-get-good.html

And when you've entered everywhere you can - go check out the book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Difference A Day Makes

Today I'm hosting  Barbara Longley with her latest release The Difference A Day Makes.

Welcome Barbara

And, to start things off - here's a little bit about Barbara:

As a child, Barbara Longley moved frequently, learning early on how to entertain herself with stories.  Adulthood didn't tame her peripatetic ways:  she has lived on an Appalachian commune, taught on an Indian reservation, and traveled the country from coast to coast.  After having children of her own, she decided to try staying put, choosing Minnesota as her home.  By day, she puts her master's degree in special education to use teaching elementary school.   By night, she explores all thing mythical, paranormal, and newsworthy, channeling what she learns into her writing.


Blurb for The Difference A Day Makes

Ryan Malloy has lost it all.  After his fiancee dies in a tragic accident, he enlists in the army, only to lose his best friend in a roadside bombing.  Wracked with guilt and grief, Ryan finds his life unbearable--until a job offer from his former commander gives him a glimmer of hope.  And in the tiny town of Perfect, Indiana, the man who thought he had nothing left to live for meets the only woman who can tempt him into risking his battered heart one last time...

Paige Langford has it all:  wealth, beauty, and ambition.  But when her boyfriend's betrayal leads to the loss of her job and her reputation, she retreats to her brother's rural Indiana home to regroup.  There she meets Ryan Malloy, a gruff, hard-drinking loner whose surly temper can't hide the haunted misery in his eyes.  He is everything Paige never wanted, yet he may be exactly what she needs--if only they can overcome their personal demons to forge a love strong enough to save them both.  

Excerpt from The Difference A Day Makes

Throwing her shoulders back, Paige knocked on Mr. Weil's door.

"Come in," he barked from inside.

Smoothing her face into a professional mien, she opened the door and strode in.  One look at his expression, and she faltered.  He looked serious.  Seriously unhappy.  What the hell?

"Have a seat, Langford."  He moved a pile of folders aside.

She took one of the chairs in front of his huge, imported desk.  "You wanted to see me?"

"Hmmm."  He scowled her way.  "Meyer Construction needed our bid five business days ago.  They never got it.  They've gone with another supplier."

An adrenaline shock shook her system, and her heart leaped in her throat.  She gripped the arms of her chair.  "That's impossible!  I sent that bid with a same-day courier two days before it was due."

"Like I said--they never got it."  He leaned back in his expensive leather chair and fixed her with a baleful scowl.  "I've also had two other accounts you handled complain that their bids were late, holding them up and delaying their contractors.  If it weren't for Anthony Ruger's intervention, we would've lost those accounts as well."

"Anthony's... intervention?"  Her mind spun with the implications.  Anthony?

Her mind flew back to the day the courier had come to the lobby for the Meyer bid.  She'd been in the middle of a phone call, and Anthony had offered to take the envelope down to the lobby for her.  At the time, she'd thought it was sweet.  Come to think of it, he'd also offered to put a few of her bids into the office's outgoing mail bin for her.  No, he wouldn't purposely sabotage her.  Would he?  They were a couple.

Heat filled her face.  "I'm sorry.  It won't happen again."

"Damn straight it won't.  You're fired."

"Oh, no.  There's been a mistake.  I had somebody else put the bids in the mail for me.  They must've forgotten, or..."  Shit.  Shit.  Shit.  She glanced around the office as the reality of Anthony's betrayal sank in.  "I won't let it happen again, Mr. Weil.  I'll get the Meyer Account back somehow."  She sucked in a breath.  "From now on, I will personally put things in the out bin myself, and--"

"Miss Langford, you're done here."

To find out more or to contact Barbara, you can find her online at: 

www.barabaralongley.com

I'm Drowning - And I Won't Put My Feet Down!

2013 started with a bang, the wrong kind of bang.  You know those years when if it could go wrong it did, when worst case scenario became the common denominator?  The first few months of 2013 knocked me on my butt and sent me skidding across the floor.  It was kind of like when my niece was small she wanted to paddle around in our pool but as soon as she got in the water she clung to my neck and refused to let go.  I kept assuring her that the water wasn't over her head, she only needed to put her feet down.  Took a while but she finally put her feet down and after that it was an afternoon love affair with the pool.  Now I know how she felt.  For a while the floor looked safe, after all, once you've landed you can't fall again.

But I got up.  And the first thing I turned to was books.  I've turned into a reading machine but worse, I'm reading books at a time.  Not, that this is abnormal for me - I tend to read three books at once.  But when I sheepishly added book four on my Goodreads list of currently reading and the system really only shows three, well I knew I was heading into the "bad reader" corner.  And then when I made the mistake of going to the library to make copies of the last remnants of what is "owed Caesar' I found myself drawn to the aisles of books where I found not one but two more.  And they were the short-loan books too.

April in Saskatchewan

So I have more to add to the list of four on the go.  That's a little over the top even for me.  So when the librarian also alerted me to the fact that there's a hold on my facebook marketing book, I knew it was all over.  I'd put that book to the side and already double renewed.  Now, I had to either invest in a pair of reading glasses, okay not ready for that, but I needed to get my nose in some books and quickly. 

Hmmm - maybe all this reading is just a way to get out of the winter blahs and into the excitement of spring.  Or maybe, like my mother threatened to do just this afternoon, I should follow her example and just go out and buy a new outfit, preferably something in lime green, brilliant yellow or laughing red.

Seriously, reading is critical to writers and maybe I'm just playing catchup after a few months of drought.

And on other fronts, Monday I'll be over at You Gotta Read Reviews with Fatal Intent.  Stop by leave a comment and if you haven't started already, follow the remainder of the tour or pop by and leave a comment.  There's prizes for comments throughout ending in a grand prize at the end. 

And you, what book has your attention.  Is it fact or is it fiction?

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com
Ryshia's Goodreads
Ryshia's Facebook

On Tour Today

Where does time go?  Yesterday I picked up a friend who it seemed, only just left and is already returning after a tour of Ecuador.  And Valentine's Day well - that's already behind us.  The good news, and in a year that has begun with a spate of bad news, the good is really welcomed....let's start with the advent of spring, only weeks away now.  Yes, hard to imagine when you have six foot banks outside any window in the house, but it's true and I'm counting days.

The other good news?  I'm on tour again today with Fatal Intent.  It's part of a tour lasting into May.  I'm taking Fatal Intent over to Christine Young's Blog today.  Again, there's a chance to win an e-copy of my first book From the Dust, for one commenter.  And comment and your name is also entered for the grand prize at the end of the tour - the movie East of Borneo and a autographed copy of From the Dust. 


Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com