I Published My Fifth Book!

 

     In The Spirit is the fifth novel in my series.  While traveling, our favorite characters stray into an unlikely adventure.  Their attempt at a countryside Christmas in the English Cotswolds goes amiss.  Yet, incidents happen for a reason, and they create entertaining scenarios.  Shady circumstances represent things that often happen in rural areas but are rarely discussed.  With the storyline set in 1947, you will discover many fascinating tidbits: historical and holiday-themed.  

     Here is a snippet of the Foreword:

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In this book, the fifth novel of the series, our favorite characters strayed into an unlikely adventure.  Their attempt at a countryside Christmas in the English Cotswolds went amiss.  Yet, incidents happened for a reason, and they created entertaining scenarios.  As always, I admired Ken’s writing style.  The scenery was vivid, the themes were believable, and the wide range of new characters were fun to learn about.  Details leapt off the page.  Shady circumstances represented things that often happen in rural areas that are rarely discussed.  

 

Speaking of learning, I discovered many fascinating tidbits: historical and holiday-themed.  What one culture assumes is unique to them is actually a byproduct of several cultures, through generations.  Such insights provided the plot with a pleasant undertone of unity.  The Morning Meditations were really helpful.  I like how each of Ken’s books discloses Chinese culture/wisdom.  I anticipated Ken’s wordsmith abilities, and I reveled in acquiring some new puns and vocabulary.  He embellished the dialogue with culturally-specific phrases that fit the setting.  I like how he incorporated the British spellings of words; it helped me visualize the speakers and gave authenticity.  In that vein, his descriptions were chockfull of time-accurate nuances, music, lexicon, and attire.  I got some fashion tips by imagining characters’ outfits!  I treasured several of the songs that I never heard before!  

 

As a skillful novelist, Ken deftly kept all of the characters intertwined in the storyline.  Their banter, teamwork, secrets, and irony made me cringe and laugh.  Their evolution showed how people of all ages/races can have epiphanies.  Just like with his other stories, the timeline of this one whooshed by in only a few days.  I started reading Ken’s authorship with his third novel, so I did not read the first two, yet.  His clever allusions to things that happened in “another story” prompted me to get them.  It was a smart tactic.  As I begin those, I wish you “Happy Reading” with this jaunt into Ken’s realm.  Let the magic begin again. 

 

--Angel 

Please go the link below to get the book:


https://books.apple.com/us/book/in-the-spirit/id1530244782?ls=1

*Here is a link to my previous book:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2020/02/i-self-published-fourth-novel-in-my.html

     I hope you enjoy the suspense and humor.  

Presidential Replacement

      Unlike other people, Lewis and I are reticent to fully celebrate the new presidency.  Born in this country, we both witnessed 40 years of scarcity regarding "big improvements".  Decade after decade, politicians promise everything but deliver very little.  That's why things remain backwards and inferior in the USA.  

     First, the election night was preceded by homeowners and businesses feeling compelled to cover their properties with boards and bars.  Despite their high taxes going to lackluster police departments, cities like Beverly Hills, New York City, Boston, and Chicago dared not depend on their overpaid cops to prevent destruction of property and looting... as happened a dozen times this year.  It was like living in a third-world country!

     Please consider how much logistics and effort was entailed to obtain such barricades, install them, pay employees to stay home for two days while businesses were closed, hide merchandise, employ extra security, clean up destruction afterwards, and restock stolen goods.  Stores suffered losses/expenditures, but the smaller ones were hit hardest.

     At the same time, another instance of racially-provoked police brutality ended with no consequences for the guilty policeman who acted illegally.  That triggered an excuse for more looting in NYC's borough of Brooklyn.  During this pandemic, there were brutal and deathly incidents across America, yet the police uncaringly perpetuate them... clearly unfettered by effete administrators.  Watch this short video (turn the sound on)...

     Giving another resemblance to a third-world country, roving groups of "Trump Supporter" illegally obstructed major highways to stop people from voting.  The police--perhaps sulking because taxpaying citizens want to reduce their funding--did very little to stop it... ironically proving the point of the citizens.

America's dismally-outdated and inferior voting system was revealed in 2000, when President Bush, Jr.'s brother controlled the State of Florida as governor, and that was the last state to sluggishly (or dishonestly) tally its votes--ensuring Bush's victory.  During the last 20 years, hardly anything has improved.  What kind of nation is this?!  Voter fraud, discarded votes, mail-in votes that disappeared, and inaccurate voting tallies were all highlighted in the 2017 elections.  Things were worse than before.  Per usual, the American government (and citizenry) did nothing to improve it.  It was embarrassingly much worse in 2020!  (equal to how badly America dealt with COVID-19).

Whereas other countries know their leadership elections during the Election Night, the USA required FOUR DAYS to figure it out.  That's like a third-world country (or a peasant village).

     Disturbingly, the winning candidate only won by a slight margin.  That signified the troubling values within America (many unchanged since 1860); "Trump Supporters" are globally synonymous with ignorant, arrogant, supremist people who favored deportation, jails for immigrant children, racial profiling, the wall against Mexico, blaming China for everything (while American companies outsource everything to China), the stupidly fictitious notion of "clean coal" instead of joining the world's clean-energy ideas, and remaining uneducated.

Lewis and I heard giddy gratitude from our friends in England, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Croatia, Spain, Taiwan, Brazil, Denmark, and France.  Those friends showed us how their populations rejoiced in the presidential replacement.  Clearly, people in other countries know good from bad, unlike nearly half of the American population.  That illuminates and reinforces our path.