Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Book Spotlight: Disinheritance by John Sibley Williams




Title: DISINHERITANCE
Author: John Sibley Williams
Publisher: Apprentice House Press
Pages: 98
Genre: Poetry
A lyrical, philosophical, and tender exploration of the various voices of grief, including those of the broken, the healing, the son-become-father, and the dead, Disinheritance acknowledges loss while celebrating the uncertainty of a world in constant revision. From the concrete consequences of each human gesture to soulful interrogations into “this amalgam of real / and fabled light,” these poems inhabit an unsteady betweenness, where ghosts can be more real than the flesh and blood of one’s own hands.

For More Information

Disinheritance may be purchased at Amazon.  

Praise for Disinheritance:
 

“In John Sibley Williams’ moving, somber collection, the power of elegy, reverie, and threnody transcends the disinheritance caused by separation. These compellingly atemporal poems form the locus wherein generations of a family can gather. Here, Williams’ lyric proto-language—elemental, archetypal, primordial—subsumes barriers of time and space. His poems create their own inheritance.”
—Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita
“There is eternal longing in these poems of John Sibley Williams. A yearning for what cannot be understood. A song for what simply is. A distance beyond human measurement. The dead and alive dancing, hurting, and praying at the mouth of what must be the beginning of time. A series of profound losses giving birth to words no different from medicine.”
—Zubair Ahmed
Book Excerpt:
Truce
A panic of finches rises and tonight
the late salmon moon is filled
with rivers and old shadows. Reflected,
iridescing, an amalgam of real
and fabled light. I rub grains of wood and cloud
between my hands and stretch from the grass
into a grandmotherly story of angels,
their necessary demons, and how little
it takes for the one to climb or descend into
the other. This is what she told me before
she climbed or descended. The distance from us was
the same. This is how she explained where I’d gone
and am going.
My hands don’t remember much anymore
of where the birds have flown. There are felled trees
in the sky. The moon’s face drifts across the river.
And I miss the hard geometries of coffins.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Book Spotlight: Othello Greene: The Story Begins by Anthony Baltimore




Title: Othello Greene: The Story Begins
Author: Anthony Baltimore
Publisher: JourStarr Quality Publications
Pages: 780
Genre: Scifi/Fantasy

Lt. Othello Greene, the leader of America’s most lethal and efficient elite special ops group is captured, tortured, and mutilated by a ruthless, maniacal terrorist named Genesis and his group, the Global Supremacy Federation (G.S.F), who is hell bent on world domination.
Moments before his execution, Othello is rescued by a centuries old Islamic group intent on convincing him to use his unmatched skills and abilities for the good of mankind.In the backdrop, is the story of Othello’s past and the events which led to his life as an elite assassin.The entire world is racing towards the war to end all wars. Will Genesis prevail or will Othello put an end to his reign of terror? 

Othello Greene: The Story Begins may be purchased at Amazon.  

Book Excerpt:
 

Every inch of his body was in pain. Its intensity caused a numbing effect. The stench of blood, urine, feces, and burnt flesh permeated the room. The air was acrid and unbearably hot, making it difficult to breathe. The unfamiliar room was dimly lit, a single flickering bulb hanging from the ceiling. His newly awakened eyes had yet to acclimate themselves to the environment. His head was pounding like a sledgehammer against a wall. Over the clamor of confusion in his mind, he could hear the faint murmur of a sobbing woman.
“Name!” he heard a voice scream in his head.
“Othello Greene,” he answered.
“Rank!” the voice continued.
“First lieutenant,” he mumbled, as his senses began to gain clarity. His heart sank like an anchor at the sight of the severed head of his longtime friend and counterintelligence operative Second Lieutenant Jack Strong. The cloud in his mind completely dissipated when he saw Jack’s nude, mutilated body lying slumped over in a corner several feet from the head. Their termination mission, he realized, had gone terribly wrong.
Othello’s unclothed body lay in a pool of his own blood. A fierce pain exploded through his torso as he stuck the severely burned stub where his right hand used to be into the ground beneath him. The failed attempt to get to his feet caused him to instantaneously collapse, quivering in agony.
He teetered between consciousness and death, staring into the face of his dead friend. Suddenly the eyes of the severed head opened and a menacing expression appeared. “This is all your fault!” it growled. “Look what the hell you got us into! You and all your guts and glory bullshit!”
“This is not my fault. I didn’t put a gun to your head. I didn’t make you do shit!” Othello screamed, blood and drool flying from his mouth.
“Huh,” Jack grunted. “Look at your dear sweet Ramirez over there. What a shame. They’ve been taking turns raping her for the last eighteen hours.” One of the arms on the headless body motioned across the room.
Othello was horrified to see his intimate friend and partner, First Sergeant Helena Ramirez, lying naked in a fetal position, brutalized and cowering in a corner. She was whimpering like a child. He felt helpless and ashamed, not for himself but for the team he had let down.
“You’re one self-righteous bastard. You knew she would have gone to hell to assassinate Satan with you. Now, because of you, she’s seen more dicks than Kim Kardashian,” said Jack with a sinister grin.
“Shut the fuck up, damn it!” Othello continued to scream. “This is not real! You’re dead!”
“This is very much real, hero. But don’t worry. You’ll be joining me soon. And speaking of Satan, he told me to tell you that he’s keeping your side of the bed warm, and that you and he are going to get real personal when you arrive,” Jack responded with laughter.
“I am not paying attention to you. You are not real,” Othello said, to himself. He tried once again to get to his feet. This time, using his still operable left hand, he pushed himself up but could not feel his legs.
Turning over on his back, he was in shock to see both of his legs severed at the knees. The miasma of burning flesh was his own. His captors had burned the stumps to stop the bleeding. The hopelessness of the situation hit him like a pile of bricks. Despair set in as he collapsed, waiting for the moment of death.
Helena crawled over to him and gently kissed his forehead. The Latina beauty who could make any man risk it all for one night of passion was unrecognizable.
“Othello, I thought you were dead,” she cried.
Helena, I’m sorry,” he replied, looking away, not able to look at her bloodied battered face and racked with guilt.
“Shhh. It’s not important,” she said, with tears flowing, caressing the side of his swollen face. “Baby, I need you to help me.”
“There’s nothing I can do. It’s over, Helena. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize. I knew the risks and I loved the ride. But I need you to listen to me. Please,” she begged, turning his face back toward hers. “I need you to help me.
“It’s over, Helena. Only God can help us now.”
“No. That’s not true,” she cried, grabbing his hand and placing it on her throat.
“No . . . No, I can’t,” he sighed, attempting to pull his hand away.
Even under these nightmare conditions, the touch of his hand against her skin brought back a flood of memories. How much he loved her. The thousand times they shared each other, holding nothing back. She grabbed it tightly, with both hands, kneeling her broken, battered, and violated body in the pool of blood around him. “Yes, you can. I’m already gone. Please don’t let them hurt me again. Those bastards did so many terrible things to me. Please . . . Please . . .,” she pleaded, pulling his hand harder against her throat.

❤Author Interview: True Crime Author Emilio Corsetti III #authorinterview

  Emilio Corsetti III is a retired airline pilot and the author of the bestselling nonfiction books 35 Miles From Shore and ...