Reading and Reviewing 7: Two of Christmas, and Two of Youth

I am meeting a number of writers at Facebook, and through their experiences and helpful suggestions, I'm branching out into the world of e-publishing. I'm also enjoying their writings ... some books, some stories, and some just portions.

The Wrong Side of the Tracks by Mike Wells

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Young men begin as growing boys, and pass through challenges of adolescence surrounded by peers. The characters in this story are high school students, ninth grade and some eleventh, some wealthy and some without luxuries in their lives.

Their friendships are controlled in large part by their geography within their town. The haves are with the haves, and the have nots stay close to each other.

Mike Wells has a clear understand of adolescence demonstrated in the real and raw emotions he shows through his characters' conversations and actions.

There are a small number of grammatical, typo, or omission errors in the text, and these can be easily resolved with a focused edit for such. They do detract somewhat from the smooth reading, but not enough to confuse anyone's understandings of the actions and characters.

I'm looking forward to part two; part one does stand alone as a character developing short story. The unresolved questions and choice of directions of the characters will optimistically be addressed in part two.


***** ***** ***** ***** *****
One Christmas Soon by Johnny Pappas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Love this book - a great read aloud for the whole family, focusing on differences and similarities among family members, and the intervention of angels when in need. Characters are memorable, setting is well described within a small amount of text, and the story, though short, is complete. Delightful!



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***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Here is a short piece I found at Smashwords.com
Smashwords is a publishing site that offers readers ebooks at reasonable (or even free) prices. The author of this story, Elizabeth, is also publishing paranormal works at her website: http://walterwriter.blogspot.com/

White Christmas - a short story
Ebook By EH Walter
Published: Dec. 13, 2011
Category: Fiction » Historical » Victorian
Words: 3147 (approximate)
Language: English

Ebook Description
See the other side of a Victorian Christmas through a housekeeper's eyes. Christmas is the biggest day of the year for Felicity and all the other servants at the de Veyney London house. There is food to prepare and guests to accommodate, including drunken cousins and amorous sisters. But no matter who they are or what their position, they all long for a white Christmas.

Review by: Terry Crawford Palardy on Dec. 13, 2011 : Five Stars
This is a delightful glimpse of a special day in the life of a young housekeeper, keeping Christmas for her Master and Mistress and their various assorted relatives, and keeping their secrets as well. I liked the easy flow of what might have been stilted language (though I did see an awkward place about half way through.) They were an engaging group of characters, very well developed for such a short piece, and i would like to read more of their story.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

And here is another short piece, but complete in its brevity. You can find this one page thriller/excerpt?/opening at the author David Bishop's website

The Bijou – The Movie House of our Youth

This is a very powerful short piece. David is obviously as much an old movie buff as “Very Special Agent Anthony DeNozzo” on NCIS! Drawing in the woman's old neighborhood, the deteriorating theatre … gives this piece a nice style. "I’ll be back," as they say.