October launches a new season, with colorful leaves, cooler temperatures, and costumes for Halloween. When Susan was six, she won a Halloween contest, not for her costume but for her long blonde curls. The prize: an oil portrait by a new photographer in town.
The first two books showcased in this newsletter are about changing faces. For Halloween, kids don costumes and wear masks to elicit positive reactions from folks handing out goodies. In other worlds, adults change their looks (visual or otherwise) to further a hidden agenda.
Recently, a newly widowed man pretended to be a Red Cross doctor working overseas. For months, he courted this 76-year-old woman, also recently widowed. He eventually suggested they start their lives over by getting a house in a different state from the woman’s home state. He ended up conning her out of almost $80,000 in the process, leaving her broke and in a town where she knew no one.
NOTE: Every day, men troll social media for vulnerable women. As Bessie Larson warns: Do not respond to these masked bandits!
In A Spider’s Web, Bessie relates an ongoing online romance during which she never sees the scammer’s real face, because he appropriates another person’s face in an effort to legitimize himself. He masks his real identity in other ways, too – pretending to be who he is not, pretending to live where he does not, pretending to care for her when all he wants is her money. Written as a journal that spans nineteen months, Bessie exposes the online scamming operation and offers sage advice and FBI alerts.
In Pablo’s spine-tingling Palace of Wrinkles, senior men and women frequent a nightclub in Miami to entice attention from the younger set. All is not as it seems, however, as the seniors mask their ulterior motives, some rather life-threatening. Written as an anthology of five stories, we meet our unsuspecting victims of the horror that awaits them, each one wishing to change something about themselves. The caveat: Be careful what you wish for. When you do make a wish, be specific about what you want.
The thing about chameleoning your way through life is
that it gets to where nothing is real.
John Green
BRAZZAVILLE – FIVE STAR REVIEW
From Literary Titan: September 24, 2023
Following the cinematic triumph of Casablanca, whispers of a potential sequel titled Brazzaville buzzed through Hollywood, yet it never graced the silver screen. In a masterstroke of imagination, authors Pablo Omar Zaragoza and Susan Giffin unveil their vision of this elusive sequel in a riveting novel. Picking up immediately after Casablanca’s poignant finale, we are thrust into a world with Rick, Louis, and Ilsa, battling the encroaching shadows of Nazi terror. As Ilsa and Lazslo make their desperate escape to Lisbon, they find themselves not out of danger, but rather delving deeper into its grip. Concurrently, Rick and Louis ally with the resistance, embarking on daring missions to free innocent souls from Nazi clutches.
One of the book’s most captivating elements is its expansion on the theme of “found family.” The narrative showcases the resilience of relationships forged in adversity, emanating warmth even in the darkest of times. The unwavering affection Fletcher harbors for Amalia serves as a bittersweet backdrop amidst the tumultuous events. Rick’s assertion, “Besides, my greatest asset isn’t money; it’s family and friends, and of those, I have plenty,” captures this sentiment beautifully.
Zaragoza and Giffin’s writing style deserves commendation for its incredible realism. The palpable tension as characters hang onto every word from the radio and the meticulously detailed battle scenes make the reader feel ensconced within the narrative. Brazzaville: A Casablanca Sequel interweaves adrenaline-pumping action with heart-tugging emotion, a balance that is all too rare. The introduction of fresh faces to the narrative feels organic, enriching the plot without overshadowing established characters. For fans of the classic film, as well as enthusiasts of action tales, this novel promises an exhilarating journey.
GUEST AUTHOR – HORST CHRISTIAN
Horst Christian was born in Berlin, Germany in 1930. He emigrated to the United States in 1954 and five years later, became a US citizen. Ten years ago, when he was 83, he began writing books based on his life as a young boy growing up in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. He was 14-years-old when Berlin fell, and four of his books deal with the time before and after the Fall of Berlin.
As he began publishing his books, Horst developed a following of people who were interested in reading about the subject and time period his books covered. He often engaged with the people who contacted him and he made several online friends. One woman in particular relayed to him how her husband, Derek, used to teach their children lessons by pretending he could converse with blackbirds. She didn’t go into great detail but what little she told him stuck in Horst’s mind. Derek and his wife were an older couple who lived in England and eventually, due to COVID, they ended up in separate nursing homes. When Derek’s wife passed away, Horst continued to email back and forth with him and told him of his plans to write a book about how Derek would talk to blackbirds. Derek was thrilled when he heard Horst’s idea but sadly, he passed away before Horst could work on the book. With the little bit of information he had from earlier email conversations with Derek’s wife, Horst wove a story and when the book was finished, he contacted Derek’s daughter and asked her permission to publish it. She was delighted he had written the story about her father and gave her wholehearted approval.
You can find Derek And The Blackbirds Of Southport on Horst’s website.
